


the Girl who was God

by LawrenceKinden



Category: Original Work
Genre: Fantasy, Girl - Freeform, Girl/Girl, Heterosexual, Homosexual, Magic, Multi, Mythology - Freeform, Sex, Spanking, Worldbuilding, tribalism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-27
Updated: 2017-03-19
Packaged: 2018-05-03 16:46:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5298794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LawrenceKinden/pseuds/LawrenceKinden





	1. The House Between Worlds

Sophi was spanked before bedtime. She'd fidgeted while the old priest talked, she'd sighed while waiting in the viewing line, and she'd giggled when it was her turn to pay last respects to Uncle Andrew. But it wasn't her fault, that last part, because someone had dressed dear old dead Uncle Andrew in a dour grey suit and tie, had neatly combed his white hair and moustache, and had put makeup on his face. Uncle Andrew never wore a tie, rarely combed his hair and looked ridiculous in make up.

So she'd giggled.

In the tiny attic room of Uncle Andre's expansive house that she and her parents shared for the duration of the funeral, her mother had scolded her for disrespect while her father had bent her over his lap, pulled her black skirt up over her bottom and pushed her white panties down to her knees. She shivered at the cold on her bare skin and the anticipation of what came next. She yelped when his palm smacked her bare bottom. She kicked and squirmed and wished she could vanish to nothing, but he spanked her again, and again, and the sting and shame of it filled her, as spankings always did. He spanked her twelve times, all while her mother scolded.

"You're twelve years old now. You should know better," her mother had said.

Sophi was left to cry into her pillow while her parents went down to dinner.

~*~

At two-in-the-morning, Sophi woke to a growling tummy. On bare, fog-quiet feet, she stole through the sleeping mansion in search of the kitchen. Through the grey-dim hallways lit by a moon worlds away, she tried to remember where the kitchen was, or even if she'd seen it. The house was filled with Uncle Andrew's relatives, most of whom she'd never met, so arriving had been hectic.

She stopped at an intersection in the hallways, the wooden floor smooth against her bare feet. A warm breeze tugged at her, swirling her nightgown around her ankles. She turned and found a slant of light across the hallway where she'd just been, coming from a door just ajar.

The door hadn't been open when she'd passed, she was certain. For that matter, she wasn't sure the door had been there at all.

And then she hesitated: perhaps she should just go back to bed and suffer a bit of hunger until breakfast, it would be safer; she knew if she was caught out of bed wandering the halls, she'd e spanked again. Her bottom still ached.

The breeze caught her nightgown again, inviting her into the room, and she banished her hesitation.

It was a study, presumably Uncle Andrew's study. But the bookshelves were bare of books, the walls bare of adornment, the desk bare of anything at all. The walls and floor and ceiling were drab and dull. Sophi had never been to Uncle Andrew's house before, but the few times she'd met him he'd been kind and bright and fun. Even by grey moonlight she could tell this study, like the suit he'd been buried in, didn't fit him.

Against one wall leaned a tall, wide mirror on a stand. As the only feature of the room other than the heavy, boring desk, Sophi approached. It wasn't a particularly good mirror, the reflection was wavery, like the glass wasn't smooth. But when she reached out and touched it, the surface didn't bend with the reflection. It was smooth and cool against her fingertips.

The breeze came again and she stumbled, putting one hand against the mirror to catch herself. But the mirror gave way like cold oatmeal, and she sank up to her elbow.

There was a moment, like the one in the hallway, where she could have pulled back, and she wanted to. But she remembered those stories where characters refused the call, she remembered her frustration with those who had to be pushed to adventure. When she read those stories, she'd have loved to nudge them aside and take their place, so she took a breath, bit her tongue, and cast aside her fear.

On the other side was the study, but full-full of armchairs and tea tables and books and paintings and sculptures and board games. And sitting on the edge of the desk, legs crossed, fingers steepled, eyes twinkling and moustache twitching, was Uncle Andrew. He wore an odd sort of robe with a shirt collar and no tie. His brilliant white hair was uncombed. His pallor was warm without makeup.

"Sophitia Caboodle! Daughter of my sister's son. I'm so glad it was you."

Sophi blinked at him. "You're not dead."

He winked at her.

But... I saw..." Sophi gestured vaguely behind her.

"A simulacrum." He said the word as though it explained everything.

"And where...?"

"The House Between Worlds. That's what I call it anyway."

Sophi giggled. Her skin tingled. "This is like a story."

Uncle Andrew nodded. "It really is. This room and all the rooms beyond are filled with passageways. Paintings, books, games, all are potential portals. Even the fountain in the courtyard. You could spend several lifetimes finding them all. In fact, I have. And the worlds, oh my dear, the worlds-some larger than ours, some no bigger than a closet."

"Are they safe?"

"Ha! I value the curious and the bold and of all my relatives, only you have answered the call to adventure, only you have crossed the threshold. Did you really think it would be safe? When you pushed through a mirror like Alice, were you thinking about how safe it would be?"

Sophi shook her head, her heart beginning to hammer at her chest, to pulse against her fingertips, to fill her cheeks and ears and nose with frightening anticipation.

"Good." He pulled a ring from his finger and tossed it to her. She caught it. It was a simple silver band etched with a maze-work pattern.

"That's the key. Put it on and push at a portal and off you go."

Sophi looked over her shoulder. The wavery mirror was still there.

"Yes," said Uncle Andrew, sounding a trifle disappointed, "You can get back to where you were through the mirror. And, I must admit, even I found it useful to break from adventuring from time to time."

Sophi shook her head. "It's not that. I was just wondering how I got through without the key."

Uncle Andrew smiled at her. "I knew you were the smart one. Good girl." He cleared his throat. "I opened it for you. A new trick for me. I imagine, with time, you'll learn it as well."

"Which is how you can give it to me now."

He nodded. "That's part of it. I'm giving it all to you. The key, the House Between Worlds, the portals, all of it. I've found another journey to go on."

"What kind of journey?"

"The kind that come when you begin to wear thin."

Sophi sighed. She liked Uncle Andrew, she was glad to see him alive, but here he was talking to her in euphemism.

Uncle Andrew clapped his hands. "Well then, I expect you'll want to get started." He hopped off the desk and walked around to the large armchair that faced it. He pulled out the chair and gestured to her. "Come. Sit."

Sophi complied, the fabric of the chair cushion soft through the thin material of her night gown. Uncle Andrew pushed in the chair. On the desk before her was a blank, white pristine piece of paper.

"I recommend you start here," he said.

"It's blank."

"Precisely. Just put your key against the portal, and push."

Sophi slipped the ring onto the third finger of her right hand. It fit snugly. She put her palm against the blank sheet of paper, making sure the ring touched, and pushed.


	2. Children of Light

She stumbled to her knees onto smooth, white sand, surrounded by small, shadowy mounds. Sophi stood, brushed the sand from her nightgown, and looked around. There was nothing but the sand between her toes and the mounds at her feet. It was like staring at the night sky without any stars.

Sophi wondered how she'd seen the sand was white without any light, and when she looked down, she found the shadowy mounds glowed faintly on their undersides, just the edge of light showing. Curious, she knelt to investigate. When she touched one at the edge of light, she found it yielding, like skin. And then it turned to her with the face of a child.

Sophi gasped and fell back on her butt.

He was pale and smooth with delicate features, white blond hair, and bright orange eyes. He yawned and stretched and the glow of his face spread to all of his body, a warm, gentle white glow, except his eyes which shone like the sun. He was bare from tip to toe and unashamed. Sophi blushed for him. He smiled at her and she blushed deeper.

"Um, hello. I'm Sophitia."

"Good morning, Sophitia. I'm Az." He stood and laughed. "It's all so very fresh and new, isn't it?" He spread his arms and spun in a circle so that his light was cast out over the sand and the mounds, and Sophi realized they were all children. Small, pale, glowing and nude, they began to wake and stretch and rise, their little hands on stubby arms, their chubby bodies rising on small feet, their round faces smiling and wide-eyed and glowing like opals.

"My brothers and sisters awake."

Sophi turned back to Az.

He glowed brighter now, was warmer and taller. When she'd turned away, he'd been a small child, no older than three, now he was her height. He smiled and reached out to touch her face.

"What are you?" he asked, his tone innocently curious.

"I'm a human. What are you?"

"I'm the first. Well, the first star anyway. In this world, I suppose you are the first." He stepped close to her, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Will you dance with me, Sophitia?"

"I don't know how."

"Then I will show you."

He held her close, one hand on her waist, one upon her shoulder. Sophi was filled with grace she'd never known. With a hand upon his bare waist and one upon his bare shoulder, she moved as he moved, in a spinning, gliding pattern of light and warmth. Soon, the sand beneath their feet smoothed to glass, and the pace of their dance quickened.

Sophi laughed as the thrill of elation rose in her belly and spilled from her mouth.

Az echoed her laugh. "We shall set a pattern that lasts until the end of time!"

Az released her and she spun away across the crystalline dance floor and into the arms of a young woman who held her close, pressing her bare body into her nightgown. She laughed as Az had laughed, her eyes glowing silver.

"Are you the First?" she asked.

Sophi nodded. "I suppose I am."

"I'm Li. I'm the second star."

"You're beautiful," Sophi said, then blushed.

Li laughed. "And so are you, First." She released Sophi to spin away to a new partner. They were all delighted to meet the First, to dance with her, gliding along the crystalline floor, never slowing their mirth or energy. She danced with them and learned their names and laughed with them and held them close. There was Mb the Third whose eyes glowed red and who held her tightly. There was Ys the Mathematician who asked her about spherical geometry. There was Bu the Jolly and Ch the Just and Gy the Lover.

Sophi knew she must be drawing energy from the stars for she never would have been able to dance with such grace and endurance back home. They danced for days, months, years. And when it seemed she must surely collapse from exhaustion they came upon a palace of golden light. The dance slowed and stopped. Sophi found herself at the head of a crowd, Az grasping her left hand, Li her right. She breathed hard, her chest heaving, her hair damp with sweat. The stars were all flush and grinning and glowing with excitement.

"What is this place?"

"This is where we rest between dances."

The stairs to the portico were like warm stone on her bare feet. The thick columns were wider around than any three people could have encircled with their arms. The massive doors stood open, revealing a long, wide hallway of light shimmering through the spectrum. There were no shadows as light emanated from every surface. Sophi knew it should have blinded her, but amongst the stars, it did not.

Together, they walked down the high-ceilinged halls. Alone, in pairs, and in small groups, the other stars broke from the group and entered rooms separated from the hall with thick curtains. Az stopped at one of these doorways and squeezed her hand.

"Will you join me Sophitia?" Still filled with the energy of the dance but looking forward to a rest, she nodded.

On her other side, Li squeezed her other hand. Sophi started. She'd forgotten Li still held her. Sophi turned to look at her as Az pulled her into the room. She was no longer smiling, her silver eyes shining. Before Sophi could invite her to join them, Li turned and strode away.

The room was dimmer than the hall, and Sophi immediately felt relaxed. She dismissed Li's serious expression. Surely there would be another elated dance, a chance to make amends. In the center of the room was a mound of cushions spun from light. Sophi and Az climbed upon it together.

"What is this that hangs form your shoulders?" Az asked.

"It's a nightgown," she said, plucking at the chest of the garment. "Where I'm from, it's what girls wear to bed." She giggled nervously and looked up and down Az's body, now that of a fit young man, slim and firm with fine, pale gold hair, nude as the moment he'd woken and stretched only a few pages ago.

"You're not from this world?"

Sophi shook her head.

"I should have known. You are too beautiful for this world."

Sophi blushed. No one back home thought she was beautiful.

"May I kiss you, Sophi?"

Her breath caught in her throat and she couldn't respond. Her body tingled as it had when they'd danced. She nodded instead. Az leaned forward and gently pressed his lips to hers. They were warm and that warmth spread from lips to shoulders to chest. And when he pulled back, Sophi wanted more. She put her hands on his shoulders, intent on another kiss, but she overbalanced. Az fell onto his back with a whump and a grunt. Sophi fell on top of him.

"Oh. I'm sorry. I—"

Az pressed his lips to hers again.

The warmth in her chest blossomed, spreading to the tips of her fingers and the ends of her toes. It tightened just below her belly and she felt she must have a fever for the heat. Az ran his hands along her thighs to her waist and up her torso so that he lifted the nightgown over her head. Sophi no longer blushed, she hungered.

Az reclined on the cushions, his hands sliding over her hips, ribs, and breasts. Sophi straddled him, his quickly firming sex pressing into her. She bit her lip and hesitated.

"Is something wrong, Sophitia?"

Sophi shook her head. "It's just that... just a little while ago, you were a little boy. It seems like only days ago."

"Time has little meaning here yet. Just days ago you were a little girl, and now..." He squeezed her hips.

"I've never done this before."

Az laughed gently. "Me neither. There's nothing to be afraid of. The world is brand new and full of firsts." He grasped her waist and lifted her. "Let me help you." His shaft, now hard and straight, pressed into her, parting her hot, damp lips. She was tight, and there was a moment of resistance, but Sophi put her palms flat against his chest and pushed down, leveraging her hips to slide around him.

The shock of it pulled a gasp from her.

"Did I hurt you?" The concern on his delicate, beautiful features brought tears to her eyes even as she smiled.

"No."

She began to rock her hips and he groaned with pleasure. The light and heat of him filled her. Her skin burned and became slick with sweat. Her whole body was tight, tingly, and hot, building as she rocked upon Az's hips.

Az cried out suddenly, grasping her waist with both hands and thrust hard into her. His heat filed her to overflowing and her skin shone. And as he thrust in ecstatic throes, he brought her tight, tingly tension to its climax.

Several minutes later, when their convulsions were done, they lay on their backs on the cushions of light staring through a window in the ceiling at the starless blackness.

"Dancing on crystal, a palace made of light, and... and you, Az. I could never have conceived of such a world. I never thought my first time would be like this."

Az turned on his side to look at her. "Tell me about this other world."

"Really? It's boring, nothing like this." But he nodded enthusiastically, so she told him about cities and school and computers and smartphones and traffic and pollution.

"It sounds amazing."

"It's not."

"Hmm..." Az suddenly gasped and flipped onto his back. He pointed at the window. "It's starting."

Near the center of the window a pinpoint of red light appeared and quickly grew to the size of a pinhead.

"What is it?"

"A great ball of fire and earth at the center of our crystalline sphere.

"Where did it come from?"

Az laughed. "Us. As we danced, our heat changed all the inert sand to crystal. Everything that was left fell to the center of the sphere. Our lovemaking, and that of everyone in the palace provides the extra heat needed to start that mass at the center burning and expanding."

"Wow. How do you know all this?"

He shrugged. "I just do."

For weeks or months or years, Sophi and Az lay upon the cushions of light, watching the ball of earth and fire expand. They did not grow hungry or tired, but they did grow hot and tight and when they did, they made love: hard and fast, gentle and slow, until the heat was released.

They were roused from their languid lounge by a commotion in the hall. The burning sphere, Sophi noticed, had grown to take up half the space of the window in the ceiling.

Hand in hand, they walked from their room, shining with his light. They were met in the hall by a crowd of angry stars. They were all taller than Sophi remembered, half again as tall as a normal human, even Az. At their head was Li, a striking young woman with dark hair and silver eyes.

"The First should have lain with me!" Li cried.

Az stepped forward, putting himself between Li and Sophi. "The First laid with me because I invited her," he said. "There is no reason for anger Li."

"Not her, you! You're the First. She is an imposter!" Li put one accusing finger against Az's chest. "You laid with an imposter, Az, the First Star. I've been told how things were meant to be, how you were robbed from me."

Sophi felt a confidence she'd never known well within her chest, much like the grace upon the crystal. She stepped from behind Az, and as she did so, she noticed Mb, the third, standing within the crowd, his smouldering red eyes over a nasty sneer.

"I am the First," Sophi declared, and her voice boomed in the palace of light with a power she did not know. It shook like a gong and all the stars looked at her startled. Sophi felt her whole body vibrating in tune with the palace. She took a shuddering breath and lowered her voice.

"Li, I wanted to invite you. I should have. I... I'm sorry."

Li looked at her, her silver eyes shining, her expression softened.

"No!" hissed Mb, the third. "Do not listen to their lies. Do not let them sway you." His voice went deep and sonorous and convincing.

For a moment, Sophi believed it herself, that she was a conniving imposter and had stolen Az from Li for some vague, nefarious reason.

"No!" that banished the fog of Mb's voice.

The stars began to shake themselves from the stupor he'd cast upon them, to murmur amongst each other, to turn against him.

"You aren't Mb the Third," Sophi said. "You are Mb the Jealous! Mb the Deceiver! Mb the Betrayer!"

A fight erupted. Mb lunged at her, but Li shouldered her aside and was struck instead. A group of stars who remained loyal to Mb rushed to his aide and were met by Az. He clenched his hands into great fists and struck the foremost of his enemies upon the chin, sending him back. It was Sg the Opulent. Kp the Beautiful grabbed Az from behind.

"Stop!" And though her voice rang, they did not heed her. Some of the stars came to Az's defense and some to Mb's. The hall was consumed with chaos. Frightened, Sophi tried to back away from the giants brawling with fists and feet in the halls of golden light.

She spied Az, straddling Mb's chest, his hands around Mb's throat. The third star's face was slowly turning wan, his light dimming. Az's expression was grit in determination. Sophi hurried to them through the fracas.

"Az! Don't! Don't kill him."

Az turned his furious gaze upon her and she balked. His golden eyes went wide and soft, and that was when Mb sprang. Sophi cursed herself. She should have known better. She'd read it hundreds of time.

Mb struck her.

Sophi hurtled through the ceiling of the palace of light and toward the great burning sphere. Within moments she could see the details of the boiling fields of lava rising before her like a great tsunami, and she screamed as one of them swallowed her whole.


	3. Children of Clay

Sophi burned. She tried to scream, but the liquid fire filled her mouth, her ears, her eyes, her nose. It filled her to bursting from within and crushed her to nothing from without. It seared her skin and her meat and her bones until not even ash remained. It held her tight so that she could not escape. Her mind was reduced to a single point of pain that was all she knew. There were no memories of the other world, no memories of the palace of light, no memories of Az and Li and Mb. Sophi became nothing but the pain and nothing without it, so that she and the great sphere of liquid fire were one and the same. For days and months and years, Sophi burned.

Eventually, the fire cooled and stilled and became the world. She became earth. And for days and months and years her cooling prompted the air to swirl and howl. Water rose from her to the air, and great storms engulfed the earth. She was the storm raging at the pain even as it eased. She was the earth, shaped by her rage even as it lessened.

And then the pain was gone, and soon after that, she coughed, gasped, and opened her eyes. She blinked away soft dust, tears flushing it from her eyes and spat out more of the same. She coughed again, tasting clay. She sneezed. And, finally, she took a deep breath. She stood and stretched. Though the memory of the pain remained, it was only a memory.

Sophi wept with relief.

"Mother? You're awake?"

Sophi gasped and choked and coughed. When she could see and breathe again, she found herself in a dim, dank, dark cave surrounded by shadowy shapes, difficult to make out in the dark. But even as she squinted to see, her eyes adjusted and she found that they were people, children, skin and hair caked with the dark red clay of the cave.

"Another gaggle of children," she said.

"Mother? What does that mean?"

The boy who spoke was thin and short and hunched. He was dirty and stank of sweat and mud.

"Are you talking to me?" Sophi asked.

"Yes, mother. You're awake?"

"Clearly." She looked around. Aside from the short, dirty children they were in a short, cramped cave that dripped from the ceiling. It sprawled in all directions; she couldn't find a wall. "Where are we?"

"The cave," the boy replied.

"How long have we been here?"

"Forever."

Sophi frowned at him and he cowered. "You've never tried to leave?"

A shiver and a moan spread through the crowd of children. Some at the edges sidled away.

"There is nowhere else to go. The cave is all there is."

Sophi shook her head. Only moments ago she had been the earth, she knew there was more. "No. We're underground. We can go to the surface. There's rivers and trees and the sky and the sun and..." She paused, thinking of Az and Li. "And stars." She looked around at them. "Surely there's a way out." 

"Well," said the boy, "there are the tunnels."

"No..." whispered another boy nearby.

"They're dangerous," said a girl.

"Scary..." whispered another.

Sophi shook her head. These were children of clay as the stars had been children of light. They knew nothing but this cave.

"Stay here if you want. Perhaps you're right, perhaps the tunnels are dangerous. But I'm not staying. I'm going to the surface, and any who want to come with me are welcome."

She looked at the boy. "What's your name?"

"Name?"

"What do they call you to differentiate you from all the other boys here in the cave?"

"Umm..."

"I call him Feet because he doesn't watch where he's going. He's always stepping on me." The girl who spoke was as raggedy and stinky and mud-caked as the boy. Sophi could only tell she was a girl by her voice.

"Yeah? Well I call her Nose because she can't keep her nose out of other people's conversations."

The two muddy children faced each other like old rivals. Sophi quickly put a hand on their shoulders and they returned their attention to her.

"Feet and Nose? Well, all right then. Show me where the caves are."

"Yes, Mother," they said together.

"Why do you call me that?"

"Because you're Mother," Feet said.

"You made the cave and shaped the clay," Nose said.

"I didn't..." But perhaps she had. As the fire had cooled and become the world, perhaps she had. "How do you know it was me?"

Feet shrugged.

"We just do," said Nose.

"So, if you've been in this cavern forever, how long have I been here?"

"Longer," said Nose.

"You've sat there, like a person, but asleep, and made of clay," said Feet.

"A statue," said Nose

"You can't just make up words."

"Of course I can. If we don't make up words, we won't have enough."

Sophi interceded. "Please, show me to the tunnel?"

The children turned to lead the way while the crowd that had gathered made way. Sophi followed, but at her first step, she felt heavy and tired and she stumbled. The children caught her and steadied her, their small hands rough on her skin, tender as though she were recovering from a fever or a burn. She steadied on her feet, and as she did, she realized she had changed, her hips were wide, her tummy swollen, her breasts heavy. Stunned, she put a hand on her tummy and felt there a tremor of movement.

"Oh."

"Mother?"

"I'm fine. I..." She thought of Az. Surely he was the father of this child.

She let the children lead her across the smooth, damp floor of clay. She hadn't thought about the obvious consequences of sex with Az. She was only twelve years old. She wasn't ready to take care of a baby, no matter that she'd spent uncounted time dancing on the Crystalline Sphere and burning in the molten fire. But she put her hand on her belly and felt it twitch and couldn't help a smile.

Presently Sophi could make out a rounded wall of the cavern and soon thereafter a tunnel. The tunnel was a dim and dank as the cavern, but Sophi took a deep breath and could smell the fresh air on the other side.

But only a few steps in, she realized she wasn't being followed. She turned back and found the crowd of children huddled on the other side of the cave's threshold. She bit her tongue on beration. They were scared. They'd known nothing except the clay cavern and they hadn't known her long enough to trust her to lead them out, no matter that they called her 'Mother'.

"It'll be all right," she told them.

Nose looked at Feet, and Sophi could see the girl grappling with her fear. Her eyes wide, she took a step into the tunnel, then another, then another. Feet followed quickly after and a smattering of children after him—thirty or so. But still more stood at the entrance of the tunnel.

She wanted to gather them all up and make them follow her, to make them see that she was going to lead them from the mucky darkness to something else. Something better. She wanted to haul them despite their reservations. But it felt wrong to force them.

"Stay if you must," she said. "But it would be better if you came with me. Fresh air, fresh water, a beautiful world. Stuck here..." But she didn't really know if these children of clay would be better or worse off here where they were born.

The tunnel was dark and close and twisty, but it climbed steadily.

They walked for days. Sophi grew tired easily and had to rest often. Nose, Feet, and the rest of the children huddled around her. Sometimes they slept. Sophi grew hungry and her stomach ached, she grew thirsty and her throat burned, but the children had no food and no concept for food. They collected water from the silty walls of the tunnel and were satisfied with it. Sophi let them collect water for her in their grubby little hands and was grateful for that much.

Sophi feared the lack of food would harm the baby she'd only just discovered on the previous page. She grew tired. They rested, huddled together in the dark, resting on the soft clay. The walked for weeks, months, years, before the darkness lightened, the air sweetened, and Sophi knew they neared the end of their journey.

When Sophi emerged from the cave, the sunlight was almost too much for her. She squinted against its brilliance, holding a hand up to ward off its brilliance, and pushed on. The children of clay hesitated in a huddle behind her.

At the edge of the cave, she closed her eyes, letting the sun show her the red of the blood in her eyelids. She took a deep breath, in through her nose and let it straighten her stance. She relaxed her hands at her side and felt the fresh air on dirt-caked skin. She felt her nipples harden at a breeze, her hair flutter, her skin shift to goosebumps before relaxing. She let the breath out though her mouth in an explosive gust and smiled.

Sophi turned to look at her frightened clay children.

"Come. Your eyes will get used to the light. Come on, it's all right."

Nose came first, closely followed by Feet. And when the first two stood at her side, the others came as well, and together they stepped from the cave into a grassy meadow bordered on three sides by sheer red cliffs one of which sported a waterfall from its face that fell to a pool that emptied into a creek that trickled from the meadow through a narrow canyon between the cliffs.

She walked to the edge of the pool and sat upon the grass, letting her feet dangle into the water, the film of clay washing away. The children followed her closely.

"What is that?" Feet asked, pointing

"Water," said Sophi.

"What about that?" Nose asked.

Sophi laughed gently. "A waterfall."

"And this?" asked another child. She was running her hand over the long grass at the edge of the pool. 

"That is grass," Sophi said.

"Grass," repeated the boy, smiling. "I like it. Will you call me Grass, Mother?"

She nodded. "If you like."

They whiled away the afternoon, Sophi teaching them the words for flower and sky and sun and cloud and wind and tree and bush and splash and swim and clay and bath and so on. And many of the children took their names therein. And when the sun set behind the western cliff wall, throwing their steep little valley into shadow, they grew sleepy, and she taught them the word for moon and night and star.

And they knew she'd grown wistful.

Soon they grew sleepy and the valley grew quiet.

Sophi stared at the stars—orange and silver and red, blue and green and gold, purple and pink and teal, sparkling gently, tracing their dance upon the sphere.


	4. Children of Earth, Sky, and Sea

In the morning, just before the sun rose over the cliff in the east, Sophi felt her tummy tense.

"Uh oh," she said, putting a hand upon her belly. She knew the children within her were ready to come out. "Deep breaths, relax." But her body suddenly tensed and shifted and pain sprang from her loins to her throat and she shouted.

The children of clay awoke at her shout, panicked.

"It's all right," she told them as she began to sweat and gasp.

"What do we do, Mother?" asked Flower.

"Do you need help?" asked Cloud.

"What's wrong?" asked Splash.

Sophi explained as best she could. "The babies within me are ready to come out. I..." She tensed again and her voice was lost to a wail that frightened the children. They shied away.

"It's all right, Mother, don't cry," said Feet. He knelt behind her and rubbed her back. "It's all right. Lean against me."

Sophi leaned back and though he was just a boy, she felt better leaning against his strength.

"That's right," said Nose, kneeling at her side and putting a hand on her swollen belly. Her eyes widened with wonder as the babies shifted, preparing.

Sophi felt another bought of tension coming upon her. She bent her knees and spread her thighs.

"Nose. The babies will come out down here. I need you to help them."

Nose nodded and knelt before her.

The tension came screaming from her abdomen and her body clenched again and again and again. With them came the slick, thick blood of childbirth and the cries of babes. When it was over, she lay, damp and exhausted upon the grass, the sky turning brilliant blue above her. From the edge of her vision, she could see the palace of light where the stars rested, and she smiled. She wondered if Az could see her from there, if he could see the children she had born.

Flower and Feet helped her sit up. Nose and Cloud and Splash helped her wash herself and the babies.

The eldest, a dark-skinned girl, she named Tera.

The second, a pale-skinned boy, she named Sora.

The third was brown-skinned and had both the nub of a boy and the folds of a girl, and Sophi named nem Mera.

Seated upon a clean patch of grass, Tera and Sora fussed for her attention. She gave Tera her left teat and Sora her right. Mera slept contentedly upon her lap.

The rest of the children of clay came out of hiding once the shouting had stopped and their hearts had settled.

"What are they?" said Flower.

"They're babies," Nose said with certainty.

"What are babies?" Flower asked Nose.

Nose hesitated, then looked at Sophi. "Babies come from the Mother."

Sophi nodded. "Something like that. When you're older I'll teach you all about it."

"Why not teach us now?" asked Cloud.

"It's a lesson I'm not sure you're ready for. But there's plenty to learn."

They lived in that little valley for weeks, months, years. Sophi taught them about the world as she knew it, and as she remembered it from the interminable time she'd spent burning and cooling, shaping and being shaped, raging and calming. She knew more now about how the natural world worked than she'd known in that other world from the beginning of the book.

She taught them games: hide and seek, tag, and eye spy. She taught them kindness and discipline. When they were good and kind, she praised them. When they were naughty, she spanked them. And by the time Tera and Sora and Mera were ready to toddle about on their own, the children of clay had grown too, and their little valley was becoming crowded.

"It's time to move on," Sophi told them one morning. "We're becoming too big for this little valley."

"But where will we go?" asked Grass. "Not back to the caves?"

Sophi shook her head.

"There's a little canyon there. We'll go that way and see where we find ourselves."

At the entrance to the canyon, Sophi took a moment, closing her eyes and fixing this place in her mind. It was a special place. She knew that leaving it would be both wonderful and terrible. She knew also it could not support them all forever. But she thought she might want to return some day, so she remembered it, then struck out through the canyon.

It took them the day, tramping through the creek, clambering over fallen rocks, threading through trees and underbrush. Zephyr skinned her knee and came crying to Sophi. Pebble slipped in the creek and landed hard on his butt. Dew caught his hair in the thorns of a bush. The children had never been uncomfortable before, and by the time they emerged on the other side, they were sniffly and cranky and ready to sleep.

They emerged upon a gentle plain that rose to mountains in the northwest and slipped into sea in the east. Sophi slept with her back against the cliff of the canyon, her babies in her lap, her children spread about, and she dreamed of Crystalline Spheres, beautiful giants, and a world on the other side of a mirror.

~*~

Sophi awoke sometime later to the tugging of Tera. Sophi blinked at the little girl.

"Look what I have, Mommy!"

The dark-skinned girl was holding a fat, furry creature with a twitchy nose and long ears.

"It's a rabbit," Sophi said, surprised. Since emerging from the cave a few pages ago, she'd seen neither hide nor hair of any animal not one of her children.

"Yes!" Tera said. She spun in a circle, hugging the rabbit tight and laughing in delight. "I knew you'd know. The other children thought it was a monster."

Sophi stood and looked around. The children, who weren't so much children as teenagers now, stood looking at them, wide-eyed.

"It's all right. It's just an animal. I suppose it's time for that now, is it?"

"Mommy, mommy! I made one too!"

Sora came rushing up to them, a sparrow cupped in his hands. It cheeped and fluttered and suddenly leapt from his hands. Sora shrieked with delight and he and his sister held hands and cavorted. And as they did, the earth of the plain swelled and burst and from it erupted the creatures of land and air, chittering and yapping and mewling and roaring. The children of clay were at once thrilled and terrified. They stayed close to Sophi and the siblings.

Sophi recognized goats and eagles, dogs and ravens, elephants and seagulls. Every animal she could remember, every one she knew, sprang into being before their eyes.

She looked at her babies, children now, and wondered. When she had named them Tera and Sora, she had only been thinking of how she liked how the names sounded. Now, she realized, they meant more. Her attention was distracted by Mera, who sat off by nemself, looking to the sea in the east.

While the children of clay wondered at the new beasts and fowl that wandered the plain, some seeking other climes, some choosing to stay, while they congratulated her babies, Sophi went to brown-skinned Mera, who wept silently.

"Don't cry, baby," Sophi said, kneeling next to nem and putting a hand on nir shoulder.

"But mommy, why can't I make animals like Tera and Sora?"

And before she could respond, one of the children of clay spoke, his voice high and derisive.

"Yeah. What's wrong with it? It's not even a proper boy or girl. You should have gotten rid of it, Mother."

Sophi looked at the child, Mist. He was like all the other boys of the children she'd rescued from the cave of clay: lanky now, dull-eyed, dusty-haired. Sophi knew that the nature of childhood was selfish and to learn empathy was to lack it for a time. She had often corrected her children gently and sometimes harshly. She had spanked them all when necessary, but never had she felt such a fury toward one of the children before.

Before Mist could begin to form an apology, before he could do more than widen his eyes with fear, Sophi was upon him. She knelt upon one knee, leaving the other bent so she could bend the errant boy over it. She spanked his chubby bottom and he kicked and shouted. She spanked it again, watching his skin pinken, watching a splotchy handprint arise. She spanked him so that clay dust rose in the air, so that he howled and bucked and pleaded, so that all the children stood and watched, frightened.

When she'd spent her fury, she pulled Mist to his feet.

"You will not threaten nem. Mera is your sibling. You protect nem. You protect each other. If ever I hear one of you threaten the other again, that little spanking will seem like nothing. Do you understand?"

She had Mist by the shoulders, gripping hard. He was staring at her with wide, red-rimmed eyes, tears streaming, nodding and blubbering, and Sophi's heart broke.

"Oh, child. I'm sorry." She hugged him close and he clung to her, babbling apologies and promising to never do it again. Soon all her children were crying and hugging her and promising.

Sometime later, Sophi took Mera by the hand and walked with nem to the edge of the sea. The beach was bright and warm and soft beneath their bare feet. The children played upon it and laughed at the waves. Sophi cautioned them against the deceptive power of the water and promised to teach them to swim.

Mera walked into the sea up to nir knees and stared at the grey-blue horizon. Tera stood beside Sophi and took her hand. Sora took her other.

"What's ne doing?" Tera asked.

"Ne's making nir animals," Sora replied.

And he was right. There was a swelling and bursting of the ocean and from it leapt fish and dolphins and, far in the distance, great whales. Mera looked back at them, wide-eyed and proud. Ne was met by nir sibs who hugged and kissed and danced with nem.

~*~

One night, Sophi sat alone, watching Tera shape earth with her hands in front of a crowd of ten children of clay, as Sora leapt upon the air and Mera danced with streamers of water, each with their own crowd of ten. The children of clay, she'd noted, had begun to show an interest in each other as their bodies grew and shifted. It was time, she realized, for that lesson in babies.

She smiled at her babies as they began to understand their affinity with the earth, sky, and sea, to the delight of her children.

"Mother?"

Sophi started and looked around to find Nose and Feet hadn't joined the others. They sat behind her. Feet pointed at the night sky. "Mother, isn't that the red one you called Mb?" She'd told them about the stars and their names and about Mb's treachery, so when he pointed, his finger trembled slightly.

Sophi followed his pointing finger.

The red star had grown large, twice the size of its fellows, and as they watched, it grew larger and brighter still. Sophi realized he was falling to the earth. The children took note at the great red comet blazed a fiery trail across the sky, some screaming, some crying, some staring in wonder as it streaked to the west. Suddenly, there came a great, muted roar and the earth shook.

Tera winced.

"It's Mb!" shouted Whisper.

"Mb the Jealous!"

"Mb the Betrayer!"

Sophi stood and they looked at her. But she had no answers for their unspoken questions. She could feel where Mb had landed, bleeding and broken. She knew it like she knew her own body. She could smell him where he'd burned the sky, taste him where he'd fouled the sea. She watched her babies shudder as she did.

"I will go and confront him," Sophi said. "You must stay here," she told them.

The children objected. The cried and pleaded with her. But her babies knew she had to go.

"I would come with you, Mother," Mera said. "But I don't think I'm strong enough yet."

Sophi nodded. "I may not be either. But I know him, perhaps... Perhaps I will need your help one day. Will you look after the others?"

Her babies nodded and she knew she had to stop thinking of them as such. They were young to be sure, but everything was young now compared to her. Even so, they were not babies. Perhaps they weren't children anymore either.

"We will, Mother," Sora said.

"We will teach them and protect them until you come back to us."

She watched as each of the three approached the children who had flocked to them and told them she was leaving. She watched as those who followed Tera shifted ever so gently in the moonlight, their skin and hair growing dark, their eyes becoming green. She watched Sora's followers become pale with grey eyes. She watched Mera's group become brown-skinned and blue-eyed.

Andeven as she turned away from that gentle plain and toward the dark forest between her and Mb, she knew that the children of clay were no more.


	5. Children of Fire and War

She walked without tiring, like she was back on the crystalline sphere and drawing on the power of the cosmos. And on her third day she realized she was accompanied by more than the animals of the forest.

"Come out here, you two."

Shuffling guiltily, Feet and Nose emerged from behind a tree.

"I told you stay behind."

Nose shrugged. "There were already ten to each, five boys and five girls."

Sophi shook her head. "So what?"

"It felt wrong to let you go alone," Feet said.

"You would directly disobey your Mother?" Sophi demanded.

Feet swallowed hard but nodded. Nose followed suit.

"I'll spank you to make you change your mind," Sophi threatened.

"It won't work," Feet declared, jutting his jaw and puffing his chest.

Nose looked at him, awed, then did the same. "We love you, Mother. We're coming with you."

"And what will you do when Mb bring his power to bear? What then?"

"We'll protect you, Mother. We won't let him hurt you," Nose said. And she hugged Sophi. Feet followed her. Sophi began to cry.

They trekked through the forest for weeks, months, years. They wended through canyons and swam across rivers and climbed mountain passes. They weathered rain and snow and wind. And when, eventually, they came to the edge of a smoking crater, Feet and Nose resembled nothing like children. Nose was as tall as her, Feet was taller. They were slim and supple. And though their skin and eyes and hair were still dull of color they were beautiful. And she saw how they looked at each other.

Sophi looked back out over the crater and found at its center, a great black, tower wreathed in smoke and sulfur. That, she knew, was where Mb suffered in convalescence. She could feel the pain that radiated from that tower and throughout the planet. If she concentrated, she felt it as her own pain, so she tried not to.

Instead, she turned back to Feet and Nose.

"All right children. Mb is in that tower. But before I go in there and talk to him, I need to have a talk with the two of you. I promised once to tell you about babies."

They stopped looking at each other to look at her. She explained to them the joys and variations of sex, then the result of babies. She tried to warn them without scaring them.

"So, if babies need both a Mother and a Father, who is our father?" Feet asked.

Sophi shrugged. "I don't know. I fell from the Crystalline Sphere and into the molten world. You said I sat in that cave as a statue before you even opened your eyes."

Both nodded.

"Perhaps that's what makes the children of clay special."

"What about the triplets?" Nose asked.

Sophi pointed to a twinkling orange star.

"Az," said Nose.

"The First Star," said Feet.

Sophi nodded.

"Mother, may we try it now?" Nose asked.

"Try what?"

"Sex!" said Feet.

Sophi laughed. "That's between the two of you. As your Mother, my part is done."

While Feet and Nose went off a ways into the woods, Sophi returned her attention to Mb's tower. She was fairly certain that if she told the two to stay behind they'd ignore her, even if she spanked them soundly. So, while they were occupied, she stepped onto the smoking rock and began to make her way.

At first, the rock burned her feet like a summer sidewalk, but soon she grew used to it, like an old wound. She avoided the sprays of sulfur that sometimes punctuated her walk to the tower. She watched the progress of the moon, a mirror of the palace of light, even as she walked.

When finally she reached the tower's base, she knew she should have been tired, but she took a deep breath and heard the shimmer of the Crystalline Sphere.

The tower had no door. She ran her fingertips along its searing surface as she walked around its base thrice just to be certain. Frowning, she pointed at the wall of the tower and commanded, "Open."

A panel cracked in the wall and opened on nonexistent hinges. Sophi entered and looked around. It was an unlit room with a narrow, rail-less stairway hugging one wall and spiraling up the tower. The only light came from the still glowing ground around the tower, red and angry, shining off the obsidian walls, casting everything in a shade of fire.

Sophi climbed the stairs, cool against her feet. The corners of the stairs were like knives, and she cut herself more than once on the climb. The light dimmed for a time, then brightened from above. When she emerged upon the top and only floor, she found it smooth and glossy, with tall windows letting in the light from the burning earth and the silent moon. And at the other end of the room was an obsidian throne upon which curled a burned, cracked, bloodied, emaciated figure. Its knees were pulled tight to its chest, arms tight around its knees. Half its face was hidden against its knees. It was curled to protect itself.

It opened one the one eye not hidden when Sophi emerged in the tower throne room. The blackened skin around its eye cracked and oozed like bloody tears. It rolled its eye up and to the side to fix it upon her. The eye was red.

"The Imposter," said Mb.

Sophi shook her head. "Mb the Jealous. You frightened my children. What are you doing here?"

"They accused me of treason, found me guilty, and banished me here. It burned, Imposter. I burn still."

Sophi nodded. "I burned too, when you struck me and sent me here."

"All is well though, for I will heal. And the others gave me this rock to play on. They didn't know you'd populated it with vermin. I'll have to cleanse the rock."

Sophi felt her skin numb and her heart quicken. "You will not touch them."

Mb chuckled raspily and cracks opened in the burned skin of his arms and legs. Thick blood oozed from the cracks to track down the roughened skin.

"You can feel it from here, can't you? The Crystalline Sphere. But it's small, tenuous, because we are here and it is there. But I have something you don't, Imposter. Before they banished me, I tore at them and I snatched out Li's eye."

The fingers of his left hand twitched and cracked as they opened just enough to reveal a silvery orb.

"Because Li is still there, her eye connects me to the sphere and the power therein. Power enough to scour this rock and remake it in my own image."

Sophi shuddered. "You really are the Betrayer."

"No. I am Mb the Burned, Mb the Bloodsoaked, Mb the Firestorm!"

Li's eye shone with great silvery light. Sophi could feel the vibrations of the crystalline sphere building to a crescendo.

"No!"

Sophi sprinted for Mb, but the vibrations hit their limit and burst. The silver Eye of Li shifted blood red and fire exploded from Mb, thrusting Sophi away and through one of the large tower windows. She arced over the burning crater and crashed into the edge of the dark wood. The earth embraced her and she breathed deeply. For a moment, she was the world again, earth, sky, and sea were one and the same. She could feel Mb's Crater like a scar, but being the world protected her from the fall.

She closed her eyes for a time: weeks, months, years...

"Mother?"

Sophi blinked open her eyes. The boy looked like Feet, but rather than the dull colors of that child of clay, his skin was a ruddy brown, his eyes bright and golden, his hair straight and black. He was clad in rude leathers and carried a spear topped with an obsidian tip.

"Feet?"

The boy shook his head. "I'm Longarm, Mother. Can you stand? We've been looking for you. Grandmother will want to see you."

Sophi let the boy help her to her feet and lead her through the wood to a village of wood and leather huts. When they got to the village, she was noticed by the villagers.

"Is that her?"

"Is it the Mother?"

"Mother..."

They whispered around her and she began to blush from the attention. They followed her and Longarm to the largest, most central of the huts. Longarm held aside a leather curtain and gestured for her to enter. Sophi ducked into the hut. At a fire pit in the center of the hut sat a blind old woman on a rough-hewn stool. Though she had aged considerably, Sophi recognized Nose.

"Who's there?" the old woman demanded. "I told you not to disturb me. None of you is too old for a spanking, you know."

Sophi laughed. "I think I am."

The old woman's eyes widened. "Mother? Is that you?"

"Hello, Nose. How long was I gone?"

The old woman shrugged and stood. "Does it matter?"

The two embraced, Nose holding on more firmly than Sophi would have thought possible given her advanced age. After some time, they sat together at the fire.

"We feared the Betrayer had killed you," Nose said. "Why has he come?"

"He was banished from the Crystalline Sphere. He intends to rid the world of my children."

"Hmm," said Nose. "And your grandchildren and great grandchildren and great great grandchildren I imagine."

Sophi felt her eyes widen. "Great, great grandchildren?"

"We are the Fire Tribe," Nose said. "Our natures shaped by proximity to the crater. Or so the triplets tell me. They visit us sometimes with some of their tribes. They've grown up mother, but they haven't grown old."

"I'm sorry, Nose. I didn't mean to be away for so long. I didn't mean for you to grow old."

Nose laughed, an old woman's cackle. "I don't mind having grown old. I've had a good life, a loving man, and many children. Feet and I learned how to make and control fire, how to shape wood, how to hunt and tan leather. Turns out your children of clay were adaptable, Mother."

"What happened to Feet?"

Nose blinked and turned away. "Foolish old man insisted he still lead hunts. He faced one of Tera's bears with a spear and..." Nose shrugged. "We laid him upon a table he'd built and burned his body. I hope that was all right, Mother?"

Sophi nodded. "A funeral pyre. That's just fine."

Nose cooked cuts from a freshly hunted deer spiced with herbs Sophi didn't know and served with thick-cut potatoes and carrots. Even though she was blind, Nose chopped and cooked with ease. She refused to let Sophi help. They slept afterward upon a bed of furs and leathers.

Sophi dreamed of fire and chaos and pain.

They were woken by Longarm.

"Grandmother, we need you. The hunters have brought something back and it isn't Tera's."

At the edge of camp was a creature with the head of a falcon, the forequarters of a horse, and the tail of a serpent. It had been pierced by a spear.

Nose knelt next to its head, her knees cracking. She touched the feathers of its head gently, then shook her head. She stood and looked at Sophi.

"Have you seen anything like this, Mother?"

"It's an amalgam of creatures," Sophi said, scratching at a sudden itch on her side. "Like something twisted the natural creatures into something monstrous."

"It killed three of our hunters," Longarm said.

Nose sighed. "Have you begun building the platforms?"

"Yes, grandmother."

She sighed again and looked at Sophi. "It's hard, Mother. I didn't know, way back when we left the cave, how hard it would be."

"I'm sorry, Nose. I thought I was drawing you out into something better."

Nose looked up through the trees at the edge of their little village to the stars dancing slowly upon the crystalline night. "There was nothing in that cave. No sadness, but no happiness either. It was dull and lifeless. I have certainly lived life now. When I say it's hard, I didn't mean it as a criticism. It's just that, in times like these, it's hard."

Sophi hugged her and Nose hugged her back, her strength beling her age.

The bodies of the hunters were laid upon wooden platforms at the edge of camp. Sophi stood next to Nose while the Fire Tribe set kindling and wood with great solemnity. She held her hand as they lit the pyres. She cried as their bodies, the bodies of her children's children were reduced to ash.

The monster's body was burned as well, but without the reverence.

In the morning, after breakfast, Sophi walked to the edge of the camp and stared to the west, to where she knew Mb's Tower still stood.

She could not banish the itch that bothered her side. There was nothing there, no bug bite or rash, but she felt as though tiny creatures dug at her. She sat upon the ground, crossed her legs, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. Mb had been right, she could feel the Crystalline Sphere and as she considered, she realized she had used its power from time to time to give her strength and endurance. But what he didn't know is all the time she'd spent burning, cooling, growing, she had been the world in a way he never had. She had a connection to earth, sky, and sea; he did not. And she focused on that connection now.

Her mind expanded to encompasses all of the dark forest. She expanded east to the great plain where the Earth Clan worked the soil and raised livestock, north to the mountains where the Air Clan roamed, and even further west and south where the Water Clan sailed and fished upon the sea. But her mind expanded westward also to Mb's Crater and the tower that rose from its center. And all about the tower squirmed twisted creatures combined from the beasts brought forth by Tera, Sora, and Mera. Most were inviable, squirming upon the ground, suffering, incapable of anything else. But some pranced and pawed and howled as they were marshalled to move against her children. Mb mean to use these creature sto wipe eh world of her children.

Sophi watched as the blood red light of the Eye of Li snatched an eagle and a horse from somewhere in the world and melded them like clay to create a new creature, a pegasus she remembered from another life.

Her mind expanded until it held the whole of the world to the edge of the atmosphere. And from here, quiet and whole, she found the one massive continent only barely explored by her children, and knew the Mb intended to burn it all.

"Mother?"

Sophi opened her eyes.

Nose sat next to her, before her three squares of burning incense: one green, one yellow, one blue.

"What are you doing?" Sophi asked.

"I'm keeping an eye on you."

"What about the incense."

"It's how I summon the triplets. In your meditation you spoke of monsters preparing to attack us."

"Did I?" Sophi sighed. "I suppose there will be war."

"What is war, Mother?"

"War is terrible."

~*~

Sora arrived first, clad in flowing saffron robes. He had grown tall, his pale hair shaved, his grey eyes bright and shining. He was thin but hardy.

"Nose. I came as soon as I could," he said when he and his retinue of three arrived in the camp.

"Thank you, Sora." She kissed his cheek and he returned the gesture.

"Why have you called me?"

"Mother says there will be war with Mb."

"Mother?"

Only then did Sora's eyes alight upon Sophi.

"Mother!" He leapt upon the air and embraced her tightly.

Tera arrived next, on horseback, clad in a cotton tunic. Tera had grown stout with wide hips and large breasts. Her dark, tightly curled hair stood from her head like a halo. She laughed when she saw Sora.

"You're thin as a stick, little brother. Don't you monks eat anything?"

"Our Mother's air is enough to sustain the enlightened," Sora replied loftily, but he smiled and they embraced.

"Nose, you're looking well," Tera said.

"Don't lie to me, little sister," Nose replied with good humor.

"And aren't you going to greet our Mother?" Sora demanded.

Tera's response when she saw Sophi was to lift her off the ground in an enthusiastic embrace and spin her about.

Mera arrived last, clad in short pants and nothing else. Nir breasts were small and tight, nir hair long and braided, and ne sported a scruffy goatee. Mera greeted Nose gently and Tera and Sora enthusiastically. Ne then turned to Sophi, smiled, and hugged her.

"I'm glad you're back, Mother. You went to speak with Mb. How did it go?"

"Not well." She told them of Mb's Crater, the Eye of Li, and the monsters he created with it. "He will kill us all if we don't stop him. We must go to his tower and retrieve the Eye."

"We will have to fight the monsters," Tera said.

"And Mb himself," Sora said.

"We'll need everyone we can muster," Mera said. "Every sailor, farmer, and monk."

Sophi bit her lip. "Some will die," she said. "Many, probably. It will be terrible."

Nose put a hand on her shoulder. "If the options are to wait and be destroyed or act and have a chance of survival, I know how the Fire Clan will respond."

~*~

They mustered on the edge of Mb's Crater, at the edge of the dark forest. The monsters milled at the base of the Mb's Tower, which had grown since Sophi had been blasted from its windows.

The Earth Clan had come mounted on horses, stout and dependable, wielding stone-headed cudgels. The Sky Clan had come dancing upon the breezes, poised and collected, bearing short bows. The Sea Clan arrived on shallow-bottomed river boats from a nearby waterway, smiling and rowdy, wielding long spears. Nearly one-hundred strong each, they made for a solid force.

The Fire Clan numbered only thirty. Each was clad in hardened leather and bore several short spears tipped with obsidian.

"Do you have a plan, Mother?" Nose asked.

Sophi looked over the crater at the top of Mb's Tower. Time had held little meaning since she'd first stepped upon the Crystalline Sphere back on page 6. She didn't know how long it had been since she'd emerged from the Cavern of Clay, or since giving birth to the triplets, or since she'd gone to speak with Mb. But surely the army of monsters arrayed before them had required much time and energy to create. She knew some of her children would die when they attacked. If she'd acted sooner, more quickly, would there have been fewer monsters and thus fewer chances for harm against her children?

"Mother?"

Sophi nodded. "I have to get the Eye of Li. Without it, Mb's power will be significantly depleted. To do that I have to get back into the tower. To do that, I have to get through the monsters.

"Tera, the Earth Clan should be able to drive them back. The maneuverability of being on horseback should give you the advantage. Sora, the Sky Clan should keep back and harry the monsters from afar, keeping their focus divided. Mera, the Sea Clan should form a barrier with their spears, keeping the Sky Clan safe and providing a place for the Earth Clan to recover when necessary. They'll need to be adaptable to the enemy's movements."

Mera smiled. "We're nothing if not adaptable, Mother."

"And us, Mother?" Nose asked.

Sophi sighed. "There are so few of you. I..."

"We will be your guard, Mother," Nose said. She too wore hardened leather and bore a sturdy spear. "And no spanking will make me change my mind."

And that's what they did. Tera's cavalry smashed into the poorly organized monsters and shoved them aside. Behind them, Mera's spearmen provided a deadly wall upon which the monsters died and before which it fled. Behind them, Sora's archers felled the monsters that tried to get around the spearmen or flank the cavalry. And behind them, Sophi, Nose, and her guard waited.

The itch in Sophi's side intensified as the monsters retaliated. Her children fell before their claws and maws, but pushed on.

Sophi wept.

When they reached the base of the tower, the monster horde held back with spear and cudgel and arrow, Nose kissed her cheek.

"Good luck, Mother."

Sophi pointed at the base of the tower and commanded, "Open!" As before, she felt the vibration of the Crystalline Sphere, and a panel opened in the base of the tower. As soon as she stepped through, it slammed shut behind her. At the top of the tower, Mb still sat upon his obsidian throne, but he was no longer curled in pain. Instead, he lounged, hairless and covered in burns, but healing.

"Imposter."

"Betrayer."

"Your vermin have more fight in them than I thought. This has proven to be fun, but my creations will kill them all and feast upon their meat."

"Your creations are nothing but a twisting of what was already here. And I know how you managed it. Where is Li's Eye?"

Mb laughed. He reached into a recess in the left arm of his throne and withdrew the red orb.

"Do you mean to take it from me? Don't you remember what happened last time?" He laughed again. "Perhaps if you're very good, Sophitia, I'll let you bed me instead."

Sophi blushed. She'd been naked ever since she'd woken in the Cavern of Clay on page 14 and had been unashamed. Now she wished she had something to wear.

"That will never happen."

Mb shrugged. "I'll just have to kill you then."

Sophi could feel the vibrations of the Crystalline Sphere as Mb brought the power of the Eye of Li to bear. At the same time, she drew upon the power of the world, of the earth, sky, and sea. It leant her strength, speed, and grace. Even as a stream of fire burst from the orb, Sophi leapt at him, twisting away from the fire, and landing upon his chest with her knees, knocking the breath from him, and striking the orb from his hand. And when she did so, the world cracked.

She broke and was remade. The one great continent split into three. Mountains collapsed and rose. Seas drained and flooded. The sky was filled with dust and salt and blood and a great maelstrom ripped across her. She wept for her babies, for her children and grandchildren and the beasts they had formed and the lives they had lost. And when it was over, she sat beneath a twisted, ugly tree at the top of a mountain.


	6. Students of Dogma

She wept for weeks, months, years, before she felt time settle upon her like a great, cosmic metronome. And when she had no more tears, she stared out across the cloudscape from the shelter of her tree upon the mountain. And when she tired, she slept for weeks, months, years, the metronome clicking steadily in her head.

“It’s a child. She’s only sleeping.”

One thousand years had passed. She wondered how long it had been since she’d danced with Az. She wondered if the question had an answer.

Sophi opened her eyes.

A group of women in dark habits and hoods stood next to a cart pulled by a mule. The woman in the lead had a strict expression framed by deep lines and accented by light brown eyes. She frowned at Sophi.

“What are you doing here, girl?”

Sophi blinked at the woman. She didn’t know how to answer. Instead, she stretched, stood, and looked around. The mountain wasn’t as tall as it had been. She could no longer look over the tops of the clouds.

“Girl!”

Sophi snapped her attention to the strict, old woman.

“Pay attention when I’m talking to you. What is your name? What are you doing here?”

“Perhaps she’s deaf,” said one of the other women.

“Or dumb,” said another.

The strict woman ignored them. She glared sternly at Sophi.

Sophi took a deep breath and drew herself up. She felt as supple as ever she had, new and invigorated. And this woman irritated her.

“I am Sophitia Caboodle. I am the First. I am Mother of the Children of Clay. I stood opposed to Mb the Betrayer, the Blood-soaked, the Firestorm. Who are you to demand answers of me?”

The woman’s eyes narrowed. “I am Mother Constance of the Penitent Sisters. And you are nothing but a dirty, sinful, naked little girl in need of proper teaching.”

Shocked, Sophi looked down at herself. She’d grown into a woman on the Crystalline Sphere, had had the hips, tummy, and breasts of a mother in the Cavern of Clay. But looking at herself she found the smooth, small body of a child. She was twelve again.

Mother Constance grabbed her wrists in one hand and held them high, pulling Sophi onto her tiptoes. She smacked Sophi’s bare backside three times in quick succession before gripping her shoulder and giving her a hard shake.

“You will never speak that way to me again.”

Sophi swallowed her shock and retort. Tears tracked down her cheeks. It had been a long time since she’d been spanked. It was humiliating but also invigorating, painful but awakening.

“What will you do with me?”

On the one hand, the Crystalline Sphere buzzed in her mind and the world breathed around her and she knew she could touch both, but these women, while of this world, were not of the four clans she knew. One thousand years was a long time to sleep after all.

Mother Constance made an impatient noise. “You’re an orphan, aren’t you? I suppose we’ll have to take you to the temple with us.” The old woman released her and went to the cart where she withdrew a dusty, grey robe and handed it to her.

“Wear this. You can walk, can’t you?”

Sophi nodded. She pulled the heavy, scratchy robe over her head. It was too long in both sleeve and hem, but Mother Constance bunched it up with a rope belt. Despite the spanking, Sophi smiled at her for her help. Mother Constance gave her a flat look.

The walk to the temple took a week, during which Sophi learned that the Penitent Sisters were a nomadic group charged with delivering the Truth to the heretics of the savage clans living outside the protection of the Temple. She also learned that they believed children were meant to keep their mouths shut and were free with their spankings. Sophi was spanked every day of their travel, sometimes more than once, and by the time they arrived at the lip of the valley in which the Temple rested, her bottom and thighs had developed a permanent ache.

She also learned how the Sisters thought the world had been made. On the first night of her time with them, after Sophi had helped to chop potatoes and wash cooking pots, Mother Constance told her to sit with her and listen.

“Azoth the First created the world from chaos and nothing. He created the sun and the moon and set them and the stars in their paths. He molded man out of clay and the beasts of earth, sky, and sea. He gave dominion of the world to man and bid them be stewards. But He was opposed by Mab the Betrayer who twisted His creations into the monsters that plague our world. They fought over the Orb’li created by Azoth to protect us, his children and most favored.”

Mother Constance gave her a stern look. “Do you understand, girl?”

Sophi looked up at the night sky. She found the lights she sought, orange and silver dancing slowly across the floor. The red light was nowhere to be found.

“Azoth and Mab. You mean Az and Mb,” she said.

That earned her another spanking.

“I will not abide blasphemy.”

At the edge of the valley, Sophi paused to take it in. At the center of the valley was a three-stepped pyramid that had to be the temple. It shone in the sun like gold. Spreading from the pyramid was a slapdash village of stone and wood and leather. The Temple was the only building that appeared to be permanent.

“The Temple of Azoth,” Mother Constance said.

“Impressive,” Sophi said.

Mother Constantine swatted her bottom, but it was remarkably gentle, like the kind of spankings she used to give to the Children of Clay.

“You’re not supposed to be impressed. You’re supposed to be in awe.”

Sophi shrugged and Mother Constance swatted her harder, though the effect was muffled through the thick robe.

When they entered the warren labyrinth of the city, Sophi was assaulted by the stink of it. The people walked close together, were unwashed, and sweating. A stout man with dark skin and tightly curled hair grabbed her wrist.

“How much for the girl?” he demanded of Mother Constance.

Sophi pulled but his grip was firm.

“She is an acolyte of the Sister of Penitence. Unhand him, cur!” Mother Constance loomed over the stout man and he released Sophi backing up a pace.

“Beg your pardon, Mother. I didn’t know. She hasn’t the eyes for it.”

“You dare question me? Where is your master? I’ll see you properly whipped for your insolence.”

“I’m a freeman, Mother,” he said, backing away quickly, apologizing all the while. Mother Constance watched him go.

“Stay close,” Mother Constance said to Sophi. “The black louts have risen above themselves since the High Cleric allowed the soft-hearted to free their slaves. And the pale ones are known to steal children.” She swatted Sophi, pushing her toward the cart as they continued.

Sophi watched the people around her and quickly realized the city was sharply stratified. The stout, dark-skinned, green-eyed people formerly of the Earth Clan were the lowest, laborers and slaves; the lanky, pale-skinned, grey-eyed people formerly of the Sky Clan were destitute when they weren’t thieves; the brown-skinned, blue-eyed people formerly of the Sea Clan were better off as traders. Only the proud, ruddy-skinned, golden-eyed people of the Fire Clan seemed well off.

“What happened?” Sophi wondered aloud.

“What was that?” Mother Constance demanded sharply.

Sophi gestured around her at the crowded, unwashed. “You said Azoth created people and Mab created monsters. So, when they fought over the Orb of Li…”

“The Orb’li,” Mother Constance corrected.

“Right, when the fought over it, surely the people fought the monsters, right? So why are we so divided now?”

Mother Constance’s lips pursed and Sophi was sure she would be spanked, but then the old woman nodded.

“Astute.”

Sophi waited, but no explanation was forthcoming.

They entered the temple at its base, through a pair of tall, wide, orange stone doors guarded by leather-clad warriors bearing obsidian-tipped spears. Mother Constance let the other women take the cart wherever they were going, took Sophi by the hand, and lead her though the labyrinth to a wing that appeared to be a long hall of dormitories. There, she entered a small room, surprising a nun sitting at the desk.

“This is Sister Charity. She’s in charge of our acolytes. Sister Charity, I have a new acolyte for us.”

Sister Charity looked Sophi up and down and sneered.

Mother Constance cleared her throat meaningfully.

“Uh, right, yes Mother Constance.” She opened a large book on her desk and consulted it before dipping a quill pin and making a few marks. “What’s your name, girl?”

Sophi looked up at Mother Constance who gave her a flat look.

“Sophi.”

Sister Charity made a few more marks.

“She can stay with Lyric. I’ll show her to her room.”

“No need.” Mother Constance took Sophi by the wrist and led her down the hall, all the way to the end. Then she knelt and looked at Sophi with a soft expression.

“It will be hard for you here. You will be spanked often, especially if you don’t curb your heresy. But if you study hard, the High Temple will provide for you. I’m afraid I can’t protect you after I leave you here.”

Sophi nodded. “I think I understand.”

Mother Constance shook her head. “No you don’t. If you don’t show aptitude for a branch of the clergy, you’ll be turned out. Then you’ll wish I’d let that black man buy you.”

Sophi nodded again.

“Behave yourself, Sophitia Caboodle.” Mother Constance swatted her hard, then stood and left.

Sophi was left rubbing her bottom through her robe, standing outside the door to her new home. She pulled aside the curtain in place of a door. On the other side was a girl about her age with the ruddy skin of the Fire Clan, but with blonde hair and grey eyes. The girl, Lyric, was sitting on a pallet laid upon the stone floor, reading a book by candle light.

“Are you my new roommate?” Lyric demanded.

Sophi nodded.

Lyric frowned and turned back to her book.

Sophi ignored her, instead sitting upon the other pallet, crossing her legs, and closing her eyes. She let her mind expand with each slow, careful breath. She took in the small room she and Lyric shared, the girls’ dormitory, the Sisters of Penitence’s wing, the whole of the temple, the shantytown surrounding the temple, the valley, the mountains and soon the whole continent.

In the thousand years since the world had been broken and remade the land had healed well. The beasts of Tera, Sora, and Mera had populated and spread across the three new continents and throughout the sea. Mb’s monsters had populated the world as well: pegasus and merfolk, gryphon and dragon, minotaur and satyr, and they no longer made her itch. But the children of her children were concentrated largely in this valley. She could feel some of them spread to the east and the ocean there, a few remote villages deep in a nearby forest, roaming bands in the mountains to the north, but that was it.

Mb’s Crater was nowhere to be found.

Sophi sighed with relief and a gentle wind ruffled the leather rooftops of the shantytown surrounding the temple.

“Come on, girl, wake up.”

Sophi opened her eyes. Lyric was kneeling in front of her, shaking her, irritated and worried.

“What’s wrong?”

“You’re going to make us late for sermon,” Lyric said. “The sisters will spank us if we’re late.”

Sophi blinked hard and shook her head.

“Right.” She struggled to her feet, but her knees and ankles were numb, her hands stiff. Lyric grabbed her by the shoulder and helped her.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing,” Sophi said. “I’ll be fine, I was just meditating.”

Sophi let Lyric lead her through the hallways and up the stairs while her body tingled with returning feeling. Presently, they entered a massive chamber in the center of the temple. At the head of the chamber was a raised dais backed by a massive sunburst in orange and gold. Whoever stood at the center of the dais would appear to have that sunburst as a halo for most everyone who stood upon the stone floor.

Sophi and Lyric were one of the last to enter. Sister Charity gave them a dirty look as Lyric led them to their place at the back of the massive hall with other girls, clad as Lyric was in pale orange robes. They stood with their backs to the wall of the chamber. The chamber was filled with people standing shoulder to shoulder.

The milling and muttering of the gathered went suddenly silent and Sophi felt the pressure in the room increase. She would have fallen if Lyric hadn’t grabbed her around the shoulders. A moan rippled through the crowd and some did lose their footing.

The dais began to fill with people in richly appointed robes in varying shade of orange, yellow, and red, but Sophi’s eyes were drawn immediately to the tall, imposing man who took center stage, behind whose head that sunburst rested. He smiled beatifically out at the crowd as the choristers in a balcony to his left began to sing a hymn to Azoth.

“Who is that?” Sophi whispered.

Lyric gave her a worried look. “Are you serious? That’s Bathum the High Cleric, Chosen of Azoth, Slayer of Mab. He was there at the breaking a thousand years ago.”

But Sophi recognized him. Though last time she’d seen him he’d been hairless and covered in burns, she recognized his handsome smirk from when he’d stood behind Li and sewn discord in the Palace of Light. And upon a golden chain about his neck hung the Eye of Li, a polished stone of bright orange.

Sophi took a deep breath and felt the ground beneath her settle. She took another and felt the wind rustle about the temple. She took another and felt the Crystalline Sphere hum in tune with her. For a moment, she was about to bring her power to bear against the High Cleric. But the breaking of the world was still fresh in her mind.

So she stayed her hand.

The sermon lasted three hours. Bathum the High Cleric spoke on the Failures of Man and the Path of Light, the Weakness of Woman and the Humility of Duty, the Breaking of the World and the Triumph of Azoth. And when it was done, he was accompanied off the dais by a gaggle of women who supported him like he’d exhausted himself.

“Who are they?” Sophi whispered.

“The Brides of Temple. They are the highest of any woman in the Temple. They tend to the High Cleric’s needs,” Lyric explained.

Sophi nodded. “Well then, that’s what I need to become.”

Lyric and Sophi waited with the other acolytes of the Sisters of Penitence and were one of the last out the door, trailing behind the group. Sophi was caught in her own thoughts about how to get close to Mb, to take the Eye of Li, and then banish him, so when Lyric stopped, she didn’t notice and nearly walked into the girls who’d turned to face them.

They were tall, ruddy-skinned, black-haired, golden-eyed. And the one in front, sneered at her.

“Well, looks like we’ve got another mutt. Did they give her to you to train, Lyric? You’re not doing a very good job so far.”

“Leave us alone, Amber,” Lyric said, but without much conviction.

“Yeah?” Amber replied.

Sophi rolled her eyes. Another time, another place, she’d have been intimidated by a bully, but here, after all she’d been through, she had much bigger concerns. She moved to walk around the other girls, but Amber stood in her way, raised her hands, and flames leapt from her fingertips.

Surprised, Sophi stumbled back.

“Yeah, I’m a gifted, mutt,” Amber said. Her toadies snickered.

Sophi looked at Lyric. “Does this happen a lot?”

Lyric looked away and shrugged.

“Here’s how it works, mutt.”

“My name is Sophi.”

Amber laughed and her toadies joined her. “You’re a mutt and mutt I will call you.” The fire at her fingers flared.

Sophi took a breath and reached for the Crystalline Sphere. “Calm,” she said quietly, focusing on the flames. And though her connection was thinner than it had been on page 12, the flames still dimmed gently until they were gone.

Amber shrieked.

Sophi took Lyric’s wrist and made to walk around the girls, but they were met by Sister Charity, and immediately Amber and her friends began accusing Sophi and Lyric of threatening them.

Sophi looked at Lyric who just shook her head silently.

They were hauled back to their dormitory by Sister Charity, Amber, her toadies, and most of the other acolytes following with a mixture of fear and anticipation. Sophi was so new to the temple that most of the acolytes hadn’t even seen her yet, but they all knew Lyric, the girl with the wrong color hair and eyes. Watching Lyric in trouble was common enough, but they all wanted to know how the new girl reacted.

In their dorm room, Sister Charity pushed Sophi to one corner.

“Stand there until I tell you you can move,” the sister instructed. Then she knelt, one knee extended, and bent Lyric over it. She pulled Lyric’s thin, orange robe up over her hips, exposing her bare bottom, and she spanked her with great, sweeping arcs of her arm.

Lyric cried out, her voice high and clear.

Sophi winced. “Calm,” she whispered again, and Sister Charity’s punishing hand eased. She stopped spanking Lyric, letting the other girl stand before pushing her toward the corner where Sophi stood. She fixed Sophi with an uncertain look.

On the one hand, since waking beneath the tree, Sophi had lost count of the number of spankings she’d endured, and she wasn’t excited to receive another. On the other hand, Lyric had been spanked and it wasn’t fair for one of them to be spanked but not the other.

“Chastise,” Sophi murmured.

Sister Charity’s expression hardened.

“Come here, girl.”

Sophi did as she was told, though her bottom ached and her skin tingled. She felt certain she could stop the whole unwarranted ordeal with a word, but she chose not to. Instead, she let Sister Charity bend her over, raise her dusty old robe, and spank her naked bottom. She let the pain of it waken her, heighten her senses. She knew Lyric stood in the corner, facing away from them, crying quietly. She knew Amber and the others stood outside the curtain of their dorm, listening with sadistic glee. She knew the heartbeats and footfalls and private thoughts of all the girls of the Sisters of Penitence in the dormitory hallway.

When her spanking was done, when the other girls had been chivvied away, when the sun had gone down and the Temple was quiet, Sophi lay on her side on her pallet, and thought about what to do. Lyric had said the Temple Brides were the highest ranking women in the Temple, and clearly they had access to Bathum. If confronting Bathum now, while he held the Eye of Li might well break the world again, what she needed to do was become a Temple Bride.

“Sophi? Are you awake?”

“Yes.”

Lyric took a deep breath. “No one has ever… you stood up for me.”

“Amber behaves that way a lot?”

“Yes.”

“And does Sister Charity spank her for it?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because we’re mutts, and she isn’t.”

“I see.”

There was silence for a time, then Lyric said, “Sophi, could I sleep next to you?”

Sophi raised her covers and Lyric crawled across the floor to huddle in Sophi’s embrace. They both felt better for it.


	7. Students of Harem

Over the next four years or so, that cosmic metronome clicking at the back of her thoughts, Sophi grew up in the regular fashion. At the Temple, she lived a hard life but wanted for little. She and Lyric and all the acolytes of the Sisters of Penitence worked in the laundry and the kitchen and the gardens. They swept and sewed and harvested. They attended classes on the nature of the world and of Azoth and His creation as the Temple understood it. Sophi did not begrudge them their ignorance about how the world had been made or the nature of the stars.

Usually.

Sometimes, though, she couldn't help but question the teachings.

"Why do the descendants of the Fire Clan consider themselves the masters of the other races?" Sophi had asked.

Lyric had shaken her head faintly.

"Because Azoth chose us," Brother Thyme of the Brothers of Science had replied.

"Why did he choose us?"

Lyric had sighed faintly.

"Because our brains are bigger."

"Seriously?" Sophi had demanded.

And Brother Thyme had spanked her in front of the class.

Another time, she had asked, "Why is it that descendants of the Fire Clan can become firestarters, but descendants of, for example, the Sky Clan cannot become, I don't know, airmovers?"

"Because Azoth chose us," Brother Thyme replied, his favorite answer.

"Are we sure there aren't any airmovers?" Sophi pressed. "What if there are and they just keep it secret so they don't get in trouble?"

"There aren't."

"How do you know?"

And Brother Thyme had spanked her in front of the class.

Another time, Sophi had asked, "Why is it that women can't enter the Brotherhood of Science or Law or Philosophy?" Sophi asked.

Brother Thyme sighed. "Because men are more suited to the task."

"How so?"

"Women are weak of body, mind, and soul. Azoth chose men to be His representatives."

"But how do you know he chose you?"

Brother Thyme had pounded his fist upon his lectern, startling the acolytes of the Sisters of Penitence. "Do you want a spanking, Sophi?"

Sophi shrugged. "Every time you spank me to end an argument, you show me and everyone in this class that you haven't got a better point to make."

And Brother Thyme had spanked her longer and harder than he ever had before. Sophi had yelped and cried and kicked, which she didn't often do during spankings anymore. And when it was over, Brother Thyme had dismissed the class early.

Sophi was spanked a lot during those four years, especially at first and almost always in conjunction with questioning the strict rules and expectations and hierarchies that went unquestioned in the Temple.

Why shouldn't the descendants of Earth, Sky, and Sea enter the Temple?

What was there beyond the Temple, beyond the forest, beyond the mountains, beyond the oceans?

How did they know that the stories of the Holy Book had been written by Azoth Himself?

But while she was spanked nearly every day her first few months, soon she was only spanked a few times a week, then maybe just once a week, then maybe a couple times a month, and the permanent ache first introduced by Mother Constance faded. The reduction in spankings was partially because she learned to ask her subversive questions more diplomatically and partially because Brother Thyme and Sister Charity and others like them got sick of arguing with her.

Oftentimes, Sophi considered reaching for her connection to the Crystalline Sphere, using a word to influence the people of the Temple, to make chores easier, to avoid yet another spanking, but she always restrained herself. That power, she decided was best left to emergencies. She did, however, draw upon her connection to the world to steady her breath, keep her balance, and maintain endurance, especially after a particularly harsh spanking.

Just over two years after joining the acolytes of the Sisters of Penitence, when she could reasonably claim she was fourteen years old, Sophi requested to begin training for the position of Temple Bride, one of the few avenues a Sister of Penitence could pursue.

On her first day of training, she was directed by Sister Charity to go to the north east hallway of the second floor. Sophi had never been to the second floor before and got lost three times before she came to a bare antechamber adorned only by a red curtain on the far side.

A familiar acolyte in an orange robe trimed in red, stood waiting for her.

Amber smirked.

"You're late, mutt. Mother Scarlet is waiting."

The older girl turned and drew aside the red curtain to reveal a well-lighted room hung with gauzy curtains and strewn with cushions and divans. The air was scented with cinnamon. The room was filled with girls and young women chatting and dancing and wrestling. Someone played a lute, though Sophi could not see her.

Amber led her to the center of the room where a tall, willowy woman with long, glossy black hair and smooth, ruddy brown skin, and bright golden eyes stood clad in a short, sleeveless red robe. Her gaze landed on Sophi. Sophi settled her stance so as not to quail, and felt the earth shift faintly.

"Gather around, girls. It's time to inspect the new supplicant."

Every girl in the room stopped what she was doing and scurried to obey. Sophi realized none of these girls was one of the Temple Brides who accompanied Bathom to his sermons. These girls were Brides in training.

"Strip," Mother Scarlet demanded.

Sophi pulled her orange acolyte's robe over her head, leaving her naked. Mother Scarlet walked around her slowly, then said, "Hmm, what do you think, girls?"

The girls, perhaps thirty in all, began to walk around her much as Mother Scarlet had.

"Her hair's not dark enough."

"Her skin's not red enough."

"Her eyes aren't gold enough."

Sophi couldn't tell which of them had spoken. She didn't recognize any of the voices. She thought, perhaps, that was it, that they would reject her. Then one of them ran a light finger up her spine, making her shiver. One caressed her shoulder. Amber fondled her right breast as someone else patted her bottom. For several moments, they caressed her, smirking, smiling, grinning. Then one of them pinched her thigh, one jerked her hair, one spanked her bottom. Sophi winced but endured the abuse until Mother Scarlet said, "Enough."

The girls backed away, whispering and giggling.

"Hmm... you are a mutt, but you're a pretty mutt." She snapped and pointed at Amber. "Who is your mentor?"

Amber bowed before saying, "Comfort, Mother Scarlet."

"Very well. You will be this girl's mentor. Punish her for being late. Gentle will be evaluating your performance."

Amber girnned and bowed again. "Thank you, Mother."

Right there, in the middle of the room, Amber bent upon one knee and pulled Sophi over her other. While the other girls went back about their business, Amber gave Sophi the most thorough spanking of her time at the Temple. Amber spanked her from the tops of her buttocks to the tops of her knees. Sophi let it happen. She let the fire of the spanking fill her, drawing deep-breathed sobs. She let it consume her thoughts until she couldn't remember feeling anything else, and for a moment, she was aware of her body in a way she never had been before. She knew every hair, every crease.

It was a couple of years later, a week or so after Sophi suspected she'd turned sixteen, that she returned to find Lyric beaming and humming quietly. Since she'd begun her training with the temple choristers, Lyric was almost always humming but rarely smiling.

"Hello, my lover," Lyric said. "How was your day? Did you learn anything new you'd like to practice on me?" Though Lyric didn't understand why Sophi wanted to be a Temple Bride, she enjoyed benefiting from Sophi's practice.

Sophi laughed. "You're in a good mood. What's happened?"

Lyric's grin widened. "I've been accepted. I'm no longer a student. I'm a junior chorister!"

In a fit of enthuiasim, Lyric embraced Sophi and kissed her soundly. Sophi lifted Lyric and spun her about.

"That's fantastic news," Sophi said. "When do you move to the choristers' dormitory?"

"Um... tonight. In a few hours." Lyric grew subdued for a moment, but then her grin returned. "So, before I go, I thought you might give me a congratulatory gift? Did you learn anything new today? Or maybe you could do that thing with your tongue?"

Sophi laughed. "Nothing new, no. I saw Brother Blossom today."

"Oh." Lyric's face fell. She often grew jealous of the Brothers and Fathers, Sisters and Mothers who could requisition an acolyte Bride's company. It was part of her duties as an acolyte Bride to provide comfort and company to the clergy of the Temple and Sophi found she liked it.

"Come now, Lyric. No pouting or I'll give you a spanking."

"Promise?"

Sophi hugged Lyric again. "This is no cause for sadness. You haven't been assigned to be a missionary. You're Sister Lyric, junior chorister. And, you know, Sisters are allowed to request the company of a harem acolyte."

Lyric's breath caught. "That's right." She smiled at Sophi. "So..."

So Sophi spanked her friend gently, and did the thing with her tongue, and much more besides.

She learned a lot in the Lesser Harem. Amber taught her to play the lute, to give a massage, to grapple and subdue an attacker. Despite her superior attitude and propensity for spanking with the the flimsiest of excuses, Amber proved to be a competent mentor. When she didn't know something, she admitted it and found someone among the girls who did. She taught Sophi the expectations of the Lesser Harem: when to attend Mother Scarlet, how to attend the clerics who sought their company, when to lounge about the harem and socialize with the other girls. And she learned about sex. The basics weren't hard, but learning how to assess another's desires, how to give them what they wanted, took time and practice.

Amber gasped and squeezed her thighs on either side of Sophi's head, and Sophi knew she'd brought her mentor to her climax. She took a deep breath, inhaling Amber's scent, warm and spicy, as opposed to Lyric who smelled damp and musky.

Sophi ran her tongue along Amber's swollen labial lips gently while she shuddered and sighed and relaxed her grip. When Amber relaxed, Sophi climbed onto the bed and they reclined, side by side, Amber snuggled up to her, hand on her tummy.

"Not bad, mutt," Amber said lazily.

Sophi pinched her nipple. "I've told you not to call me that."

Amber yelped and chuckled. "I'm still your mentor. I'll call you whatever I like."

"And I'll pinch your nipple if you do."

"I'll spank you to make you behave."

"Like that ever works."

They shared a chuckle and a long moment of silence. Sophi let her mind wander, expanding and retracting in beat with her heart, taking in the general quiet mood of the Lesser Harem.

"Why do you suppose the Firefolk are the only race so comfortable with sex?" Amber said suddenly. "It's so much fun, I just can't understand why the other races are such prudes."

Sophi shrugged. "I suppose that's my fault. I never got around to giving them the talk like I did Nose and Feet."

Amber propped herself up on an elbow and looked down at Sophi.

"What was that?"

Sophi blinked up at her. "Hmm?"

"It's your fault the other races are prudes?"

Sophi blushed. "Did I say that?"

Amber laughed. "You're a strange girl, mutt."

Sophi pinched her nipple. Amber spanked her thigh. They would have commenced to wrestling had not Mother Scarlet called to the Lesser Harem. All the girls of the harem came scrambling at her call. They lined up at her direction before a regal woman with iron-grey hair entered the Lesser Harem.

This, Sophi realized, was her chance to be chosen as a Temple Bride. And though she'd enjoyed the past four years learning with Amber and practicing on Lyric and becoming the best harem acolyte she could, she reminded herself she had chosen this path to get close to Bathum and recover the Orb of Li without rebreaking the world.

There were thirteen of them lined up. Sophi knew choosing of new Temple Brides was sporadic. Temple Brides served at the pleasure of the High Cleric and ther was no set number to how many there were or how long their tenure. She knew sometimes several were chosen at once, someties only one.

She forced herself to stand at ease, relaxed, confident. She met the gaze of the Temple Bride, a strong woman in rich, orange robes, with a firm gaze on bright, golden eyes , which she narrowed at Sophi, a silent rebuke. Sophi remained steady. She felt the vibrations of the Crystalline Sphere tingling along her shoulders. She held the gaze for several moments more and the Temple Bride nodded and smiled faintly. She swept her gaze across the other girls before bringing it back to Sophi.

"That one," the Temple Bride said, pointing at Sophi.

Sophi could feel the disappointment of the other girls of the Lesser Harem, in particular Amber, who stood next to her. Amber, who had bullied her on the first day, but who had become her teacher, her confidant, her lover and her friend.

Sophi hated to see her disappointed.

As the Temple Bride turned to leave, Sophi embraced the tingle at her shoulders and whispered, "Choose." A gust of wind shook the walls of the temple.

The Temple Bride pause, tunred, looked at Amber and pursed her lips, then nodded and pointed. "Her also."

Amber grabbed Sophi's hand hard.

The Temple Bride left.

The other girls of the lesser harem went about their day as Mother Scarlett took them each by a shoulder and led them away. She led them to the uppermost floor via a narrow back stairwell and to a room where she presented them with bright orange robes of the fienst cotton. They wer smooth and soft and cool. She brushed their hair and braided it loosly. She filled a bowl with water from a pump, an amenity Sophi hadn't know existed. She washed their feet. Sophi blushed.

And when she was done with them, she kissed them each on the lips.

"Congratulations, Brides. From this moment on, you answer only to your sisters and to the High Cleric himself." She bowed, like a supplicant. "By your leave?"

Sophi looked at Amber, whose eyes were wide. Amber swallowed hard and looked at Sophi. For all the confidence the firestarter had when they were children, she now seemed uncertain, frightened.

"Thank you, Mother Scarlet," Sophi said. "For everything."

Mother Scarlet stood and turned to leave, but Sophi put a hand on her shoulder and hugged her. Amber joined them.

When they released her, Mother Scarlet nodded to them. "Behave yourself, girls," she said with a hint of steel. Then she smiled and winked and was gone.

The same Temple Bride who'd chosen them arrived soon thereafter to fetch them. She led them through the opulent, well-appointed, wide and airy halls of the uppermost floor as she spoke to them.

"I am Bride Ruth, most senior of us. You will learn the intricacies of being a Temple Bride soon enough, my sisters." Her orange robe was trimmed in white and red and gold. She was regal in her bearing but not unkind. Though she was clearly advanced in age, she knew she was beautiful. Her iron-grey hair was braided loosely as theirs was. "Your first lesson, however, comes directly from Husband Bathum himself. You are his now and may only be touched by him or your sisters."

Sophi bit her tongue and steeled her resolve. Now was her moment. She would relieve him of the Eye of Li and rob him of his power. They were led to an opulent bedchamber covered in golden gilt with a large bed, unlike anything Sophi had seen in the Temple. Clearly it was good to be the Hgh Cleric.

Bride Ruth left them there after saying, "Please him well and you'll be taken care of for many years to come."

"What do you suppose he'll do with us?" Amber asked.

Sophi looked at her. "Are you serious? We are his brides."

"Well, yes, but what do you think he wants? Does he want us both at once? Does he like it fast or slow? Does he prefer it gentle or rough? Does he like foot massages?"

"Relax," said Sophi. "You've done this hundreds of times."

"But not with the High Cleric." Amber swallowed hard. "What if I do it wrong? What if he doesn't like me?"

"Amber, I need you to settle down. It will be fine."

"But I..."

"Amber, enough. If you don't settle down, I will smack your bottom."

Amber stiffened, affronted. "You wouldn't dare."

"I would. Every time Mother Scarlett spanked you, you were always calmer afterwards. I'm happy to employ the technique now if you can't manage yourself."

Amber flicked her fingers and fire sparked from them.

"Don't forget who wins our wrestling matches, Sophi. I can more thanhandle myself against you."

"There," said Sophi. "That's the confident girl I need. Now, are you ready?"

Amber bit her lip and took a breath. "Right. Thanks."

He came in then. He was tall. Not as tall as the stars had been in the Palace of Light, but taller than any man Sophi had seen in the Temple. His hair was dark, his skin pale, his eye shone bright orange. He shrugged off his robe, letting it drop to the floor, leaving him in a loose blouse and pants. The Eye of Li hung about his neck, shining orange and Sophi tried not to stare at it.

He spread his arms wide and smiled. His straight, white teeth gleaming.

"You must be the new ones." His smile widened with a hint of the predatory. "It is, of course, a great honor to be a Temple Bride, married only to Azoth and our duty to him. Come, show me what you've learned."

He pulled his shirt over his head and shucked out of his pants, already swelling with anticipation. Sophi let her training take over. She smiled at him and slipped out of her robe, leaving her bare. Amber followed her lead. They had practiced together rmany times and even worked together on occasion, and as they followed the naked High Cleric to his bed, Sophi waited for the subtle signal from Amber that would tell her who would take what role. But it didn't come.

So as the crawled onto the bed behind Bathum, Soph took Amber's shoulder and guided her around behind him. She knelt so he could recline against her naked breasts while Sophi took his quickly swelling manhood in one hand. Amber massaged his shoulders and he sighed gently.

"Yes, very good," he said.

For several moments, Sohpi gazed into his half-lidded eyes. She feared, in that moment, he would recognize her, bring his power to bear gainst her. She feared she would give herself away. But there was no light of recognition. She smiled at him winsomely then ducked her head between his thighs to take him in her mouth. She resisted the urge to bite him, reminding herself of her goal. Instead, she relaxed her throat and took him all the way down the shaft, then back up again, her lips pressing, and he groaned for it. She massaged his penis with her mouth slowly, gently, bringing him close but never quite putting him over the edge.

Amber nuzzled his neck and nibbled his ears and rubbed his back. When Sophi paused in her ministrations to take a breath, Amber used her hands to keep him groaning gently.

High Cleric Bathum had a significantly greater stamina than any of the male clerics Sophi had serviced before, but she didn't mind it. She stayed focused on her goal and the longer she could keep him going, the more likely he was to be spent at the end, perhaps to fall asleep, which would be her chance.

For half an hour, they pleasured him like this until Sophi felt that faint, tremble in him, the huskiness of breath, that indicated he was close. She went back on her knees and let Amber's hands to the work for a while. She met Amber's gaze and saw her nod faintly, giving her consent for Sophi to finish him.

Sophi straddled Bathum's waist. He gasped and groaned and arched back. Amber bit his neck gently and he gasped gain. Sohpi put herhands around his shaft and pressed her warmth to his tip, and in one smooth motion enveloped him. He cried out, a sonorous tone, like a bell being struck. He put his hands on her hips and held tightly. She rocked against him and he smacked her bottom sharply.

Sophi's vision blurred and she gasped. She's had all manner of sex since entering the lesser harem. She'd learned all manner of ways to pleasure a man and a woman. But Amber was only second to Lyric in beingn able to pleasure her back. Only the two of htem had ever realized she liked her bottom smacked during sex. He spanked her again and she ground hard against him. He spanked her again, harder this time. She ran her hands up his chest and around his neck, tangling her fingers in the gold chain unexpectedly.

He arched sharply and Sohpi knew he was soon to be finished. Moments later, she felt herself building to ths same tension and shen he suddenly stiffened and filled her with his heat, she came to climax as well. They cried out together and the Temple shook, the heavans cried out, and a storm broke above them, pounding at the windows of the uppermost floor of the Temple.

An hour later, once Bathum had been asleep for some time, lying between him and Amber, Sophi plucked Li's Eye from his chest and stood from the bed. She held it in her fist and flet the Crystalline Sphere as she'd not felt it sinces standing upon it. She closed her eyes and saw the throne room of the Palace of Light.

Az sat upon the great, blinding throne, his long golden hair cascading about his shoulders. His golden eyes hard and distant. At his left sat Li the Second, her hair longer than last Sophi had seen it, bound back, away from her face, so her one silver eye shone and the other, empty, with three long scars trailing down her cheek, visible to all. They wore simple robes the same colors as their eyes, and they gazed out over the throne room without a hint of joy.

Sophi opened her eyes. Bathum and Amber still slept.

She turned and left.


	8. Students of the High Cleric

She strode through the shanty town with Li’s Eye hanging from her neck. Her high-quality, orange robes attracted notice and she got plenty of stairs as she passed through. She walked past the edge of the town to a flat area just before the switchbacks that lead up the side of the valley. The area was thick with several large flat stones, and she sat on one, and she waited.

The first person to visit her was a brown-skinned, blue-eyed descendant of the Water Clan.

“So, you a holy lady then?”

Sophi shrugged. “Probably not.”

“But, you’re wearing holy lady clothes.”

Sophi nodded.

“And I’m pretty sure that’s the holy man’s bauble you’re wearing.”

Sophi nodded again, but she said, “He stole it. I’m just stealing it back.”

“So, it’s yours then?”

She shook her head. “It belongs to Li, the Second.”

“Hmm. Don’t know what that means.”

“Well, if you like, when night comes, I’ll be happy to point her out to you.”

The man shook his head and laughed. “You’re a crazy lady.”

Sophi shrugged. “If you like.”

He wandered off.

The second person to visit her was a dark-skinned, green-eyed child descended from the Earth Clan.

The child stood in front of, pulled her thumb from her mouth, and said, “My daddy says you’re a demon.”

Sophi laughed. “Do I look like a demon?”

The child shook her head and said, “But demons are tricksy. Maybe demons don’t look like demons.”

“Pretty clever,” Sophi said.

“Daddy says you should go away or you’ll bring bad luck.”

“Really?”

“Yup. And he said he’d spank me if I talk to you.”

“So, why are you talking to me then?”

The child shrugged. “Curious.” And she scampered on.

The third person to approach was an old woman in the [color] robes of the Sisters of Penitence. She planted her fists on her hips and fornwed at Sophi. “Didn’t I tell you to behave yourself, child?”

Sophi smiled at Mother Constance. “How’s the missionary work?”

“Thankless and uncomfortable.”

“Yet you continue to do it.”

“It’s worth it. Bringing truth to the savages is always worth it.”

“The truth that Bathum is some kind of thousand-year-old savior?”

“You know, you’re not too old for a spanking.”

Sophi nodded. “You’re probably right, but I can assure you that the man who calls himself Bathum is no savior. He is Mb the Betrayer, the Firestorm, the Deceiver.” She told Mother Constance the story of how she’d come to this world, how she’d woken the stars and danced with them, how she had made love ot Az the First Star, how she’d been struck by Mb and burned in the center of the earth, how she’d birthed Tera and Sora and Mera. And how now she had taken Li’s Eye and divested Mb of his power.

Mother Constance kept her stern demeanor through the whole story, hands on her hips, and Sophi was sure the old woman would try to bend her over a knee and spank her soundly. She wondered if she would struggle or if she would let th old woman have her way. But she didn’t have to make the decision as Mother Constance sighed and sat down next to her.

“Are you telling me I’ve been preaching a lie all this time?”

“I’m Sorry,” Sophi said.

“Rather than praying to Azoth, we should have been praying to you?”

“I wouldn’t go that far. I don’t exactly hear prayers.”

“Maybe you’re not listening hard enough.”

“Hadn’t thought of that,” Sophi replied.

Over the next three weeks, people came to hear Sophi’s story. She told it whenever she was asked. Some laughed at her, some declaired her a heretic, some mused and nodded, and some even stayed, like Mother Constance.

Sophi found she wasn’t hungry, nor thirsty, nor did she tire, but the people who had joined her still had these basic needs, and would occasionally leave to take care of them. Some returned, some didn’t.

Eventually, Amber came. Her face mottled with bruises.

Sophi stood, aghast, and embraced her. Amber sobbed into her shoulder.

“What happened?” Sophi demanded, though she knew as soon as she asked: Amber had been beaten for Sophi’s betrayal. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. I didn’t realize… I didn’t think…” She took a deep breath and drew upon the power of the earth beneath her, the air above her, the water of her very body. She felt Li’s Eye against her chest and through it she reached to the Crystalline Sphere. “Heal,” she whispered.

Amber gasped and shuddered.

Those who had gathered about, gasped in awe.

Amber shook her head. “So it’s true, you did steal the Orb’li.”

“Well, I stole it back.”

“He’s going to come for you,” Amber said. “He will punish you for what you’ve done.”

Sophi grinned. “He’s welcome to try.”

“You’re not afraid of hime?”

Sophi shook her head. “I’m the first. I knew him when he was just a baby star, just a jealous boy, just a lying man. His connection to the Crystalline Sphere is weak and so is he, which is why he cowers in the temple, abusing girls. Let him come andexact his revenge if he can.”

Amber shook. “He will not like hearing that. He’ll be angry with me.”

“Then stay here with me.”

“I can’t. He’ll be furious.”

“I will protect you.”

Amber shook her head and Sophi didn’t know how to convince her. But Mother Constance, who hardly left Sophi’s side, snapped her voice like a whip.

“Don’t be foolish, girl. That man has lied to us for a thousand years. Sophi has never lied to me once. Who will you put your trust in?”

Amber looked at Mother Constance, aghast and affronted. Sophi smiled to see her friend’s strength.

“I am a Bride of the Temple. How dare you speak that way to me?”

Mother Constance snorted. “You’re a little girl with a bad attitude and I’ll speak to you any way I please.”

Amber spluttered her indignation, then said, “Fine. I will stay then.”

“Good,” said Sophi. “I’m glad.”

More came. Priests from the Temple, still in their temple robes, came to hear her story and warn her of Bathum’s fury. She told the story and laughed at the threats. Most hurried back to the Temple, but some stayed.

Eventually, Lyric came, leading half a dozen others in chorister robes. Sophi greeted her warmly, kissing her hard on the lips.

“Did they hurt you?” Sophi asked.

Lyric shook her head. “None rememberd that you and I shared a room.”

“Good,” said Sophi. “Are you staying?”

“Of course. Who would go back to that liar after hearing your story?”

Over the next several months, their group grew. Some brought tents and tools and before Sophi knew it, a small camp had set up around her.

“I think this is a bit much. Perhaps we should move on.”

“Move on where?” asked Mother Constance.

Sophi shrugged. “Out of the valley, certainly.”

“But we’ll starve,” said Lyric.

“No,” said Sophi. “Do you think all this food is prodced in this crowded little valley? There are farmers and hunters amongst our little group here and I’m sure more will join us.

Sophi led them out of the valley and into the moutains. They walked for several weeks until she recognized the twisted old tree from page 43, the same under which she had sat for a thousand (or so) years.

“Here,” said Sophi.

“We’re going to build a temple here?” Amber asked.

Sophi shook her head. “I’m not interested in a temple. That sort of hierarchy has too much potential to be abused. I was think just a little community where we could watch the stars and feel the earth and have a happy little existence.”

“A happy little existence sounds nice,” said Mother Constance.

So that’s what they did. They set up a camp that became a village. Sophi insisted upon drawing up a list of basic human rights and called it a constituteion, a word she pulled from a distant memory of a distant world. Then she insisted they elect a council to help mediate disputes. Everyone wanted her to head the council but she refused. Instead, once all the votes were tallied, Jorn the hunter and Liam the farmer, Lyric the chorister and Amber the Firestarter were elected as councilors while Mother Constance, who some had begun to call the first disciple, was elected as chief councilor.

People came from the valley of the Temple, where Bathum still ruled as High Cleric, but he was never seen outside the Temple anymore and the laws that ruled the Temple were going largely unenforced outside it. That struck Sophi as a good thing, but Mother Constance said, “He may have been a fraud, but he kep the peace.” Indeed, as more people feld the valley to their quickly growing village, it became obvious that anarchy was taking over.

Sophi went before the council to request they send messengers welcoming any who wanted to join them here. The council deliberated and Mother Constance said, “We will grant your request on the condition that you be the messenger.”

Sophi sighed and shook her head. “Last time Mb and I fought, the world cracked.”

“But you have Li’s Eye now,” Lyric said. “He is weak. You can confront him.”

“The message will mean more coming from you,” said Amber.”

“I’ll sleep on it,” Sophi said. Though she didn’t need to sleep, she sometimes liked to. That night, she lay on her bed with Lyric on one side and Amber on the other. Before dawn, before her lovers awoke, she put on a bulky, shapeless dress, and a pair of sturdy boots and began the walk back to the Temple Valley. After three months, she was beginning to show and she didn’t want Mb to know she was pregnant.

At its edge, she paused to look out at it. The shanty town was nearly a third destroyed, some by fire, some smashed. She sighed and shook her head at the wanton loss of life and civilization. She looked at the Temple and saw that however the town had been ravaged, the temple was pristine. And she realized as she looked out over the valley, that she’d stood here before, a long time ago, and this valley had been a crater that had burned and at its center had been not a temple, but a tower.

“Of course,” she said. “I should have seen it.” She walked down into the valley and through the town and into the temple. She wended her way though the halls unerringly. Priests and acolytes backed away from her quickly. She made her way to the uppermost floor and the opulent bedroom where she knew he would be.

He lounded upon his bed, naked and indolent and hard.

“So, you’ve come back, my pretty little bride. I told you I’d bed you some day.”

Sophi shuddered.

“You liked it, didn’t you? I’m a fantastic lover.”

“Of that, there is no doubt,” said Sophitia. “But you did not bed me. I bedded you.”

His smile faded to a snarl. “Know your place, child.”

Sohpi laughed. “You call me a child?”

“I have lived as ruler of this world for a thousand years.”

“No, you’ve ruled over your tiny little valley for a thousand years. You never thought to look beyond?”

He snarled at her.

“Look, Bathum, all I want is what’s best for the people of this world. And this chaos just outside your temple is not good for them.’

“You’ve come to steal the rest of my people.”

“Oh, grow up. They’re not yours. You can’t own a person. And I made sure to write that one down so future generations would know.” She sighed. “You want to stay here and rule your little valley and pretend you’re the savior of humankind, go for it. But I tell you want, no one’s going to stay if you don’t get it together. Builld some infrastructure, protect yoru people, hold elections.”

“Elections? Are you mad?”

“If you’re so worried about yoru own little power system, don’t elect a High Cleric. You can stay in charge of that part. But if you want people ot hang around, to not have to leave for fear of their lives, or just to get food, you’re going to have to put together something like a civilization.”

“Why are you telling me this? Why are you giving me any sort of chance?”

Sophi shook her head. “It’s not for you, it’s for them.”

“You think this lecture will protect them?”

Sophi shrugged. “That’s up to you.”

“I should snatch that bauble from around your neck.” He stood and stepped toward her threateningly.

Sophi took a breath and wind howled about the Temple. She took a step toward him and the earth trembled. She held out a hand the Crystalline Sphere sung in her mind. “Stop,” she said. And he did.

“I am more than you, Bathum, and you know it. Do as I say and I think you’ll be happy, at least as much as you can manage. Ignore me and watch them all leave you. Your plight makes no difference to me, but I’ll help as many of them as I can.”

She left him there and she spoke through the Crystalline Sphere and bade any of those who wished to join her to prepare to leave. Those who wished to stay she made some suggestions about constitutions and elections and civilization. The next morning she began her trek back into the mountains and nearly half of those in the valley followed. The half who didn’t she wished luck.

~*~

When she returned, Lyric and Amber were furious with her for leaving without saying goodbye, and they took turns spanking her naked bottom. Afterward, she married them though they bickered almost all the time, Sophi realized their bickering was a kind of love. When it got out of hand, she spanked them, which was often, but those spankings were always followed by love-making, sometimes sweet, sometimes raucous.

Six months after they were married, Sophi gave birth to a ruddy-skinned, golden eyed baby girl whom she named Irha, and Amber and Lyric loved her as their own.

The village became a town, the town became a hamlet, the hamlet became a city. After a while, she realized they’d given it a name: Kaboodle.

They lived in a modest cabin built for them by the citizens of the town, up in the hills a little ways from the main part of town, to afford her privacy. Even so, whenever someone would come to visit, she always made time to tell them about how it had been in the beginning and to offer what advice she could. Most folk, she realized, already had a sense of the decision they wanted to make, all she had to do was listen and help them realize it.

Sophi had wondered if Irah might be of dubious physical sex so as to maintain symmetry of theh children she had born, but Irah was definitely female. She had the same ruddy skin and dark hair and golden as as the descendants of Feet and Nose, the people of the Fire Clan had born. And as she grew into a toddler, it soon became apparent that Irah had the same firestarting abilities as Amber complementing the elemental powers of her siblings.

Amber was absolutely delighted her daughter (for both she and Lyric thought of Irah as their collective daughter) had firestarting powers and began training her immediately.

The first time they set the house of fire, Sophi spanked them both and told them firestarting training was to take place outdoors only. Irah had caterwalled and Amber had sniffled and giggled, and both did as Sophi had told them.

Sora visited them first. He embraced Sophi warmly and kissed her cheek. “Mother, it is so very good to see you. I had no idea you were interested in founding a holy city.”

“Holy city? No, no, I just invited anyone from Mb’s Crater who wanted to come.”

“Well the monks of the Air Clan who’ve visited told me this is a holy city.”

“I didn’t know monks from the Air Clan had visited.”

“You don’t go out into the city very much, lover,” Lyric said.

“And aren’t you going to introduce me?” Sora asked.

Sophi blushed. “This is Lyric. She was a chorister at the Temple, and… um…”

“And your lover. How wonderful for you.”

“And you’re her son?” Lyric said.

Sophi could tell Lyric was trying to wrap her brain around that one.

“I told you I was the First,” Sophi said. “I told you about my children and the ones I bore of Az.”

“Yes, I just…”

“Did you think I was lying to you?” Sophi demanded.

“No. Um…”

“Come now, Mother, be kind.”

When Amber and Irah came in from their firestarting lesson, Sophi introduced them to Sora.

“You have two wives?” Sora said, taken aback, blushing

“you know, I speculated a few years ago that the reason the Fire Clan is the only one so comfortable around sex is that I never got around to giving you and your sibs that lesson I promised.”

Sora cleared his throat. “That won’t be necessary, Mother.”

“I’m not sure you’re right,” said Sophi.

“Wait, mother?” said Amber.

“And this will be your little sister, Irah,” Sophi said to Sora.

“Little sister? How absolutely adorable.” He knelt and gave the toddler a hug and a kiss on the head. “Does that mean you reunited with Az?”

Sophi shook her head. “Her father is Mb.”

Sora’s eyes went wide.

Sophi had told Lyric and Amber of course, and both had decided who their daughter’s biological father was, that they would love her no matter what.

“Mother, may I speak with you in private?”

Sophi looked at her wives and her daughter and said, “No. Anything you want to say to me can be said to all of us.”

“It’s just, I want to avoid a self-fullfiling prophecy.”

Sophi shook her head and crossed her arms.

“Very well,” said Sora. “Amongst my people, the Air Monks, there’s a prophecy of sorts.”

“And?”

“It says the Son of Mab the Destroyer will come to enslave all humankind.”

Sophi snorted. “First, Mab is fictional. He’s the product of the bastardization of the story of what happened at Mb’s Crater. Which I’m sure you’re well aware.”

Sora nodded. “Yes, mother.”

“Second, Irah is not Mb’s son, she’s his daughter, and even better, she’s not really Mb’s daughter because she’s being raised by me and Lyric and Amber.”

Sophi took a deep breath and tried to calm her emotions. She looked at Sora and found his expression pained and apologetic.

“And,” said Sophi, “I hope, she’ll be raised by her sibs as well. If you’ll come by once in a while.”

Irah was busy ignoring them, spinning in circles and making herself so dizzy she fell flat on her butt and giggled intensly.

Sophi watched the worry lines in Sora’s forehead ease and he smiled. “Of course, mother.”

“So, if you’re Sophi’s son, does that make me your stepmother?” Amber said.

Sora blushed and laughed. “I suppose so.”

“Shame,” said Amber. “He’s awfully cute, love,” she said to Sophi.

“That’s my son you’re talking about,” Sophi said, indignant. “I gave birth to him. I nursed him. I taught him to talk and walk and wipe his own bottom.”

“Mother!”

“I was there when he created the creatues of the air. You are not allowed to be attracted to him. That is a firm rule of… Sophi Kaboodle as… as proclaimed today!”

Amber laughed and Lyric joined her.

Sophi shot Lyric a look. “You’re supposed to be the responsible one. Don’t encourage her.”

“Well, he is awfully cute,” Lyric said.

Sophi threw her hands in the air.

Sora stayed with them for a few months until Tera arrived to be introduced to Lyric and Amber and little Irah. She did not ask to speak with Sophi privately but did manage to catch her alone one night to talk to her about the prophecies of the Earth Clan dealing with the Son of Mab.

“Do you suppose your clan got that story from Sora’s clan or vice versa?”

Tera shook her head solemnly. “Near as I can tell, they came up with it independently. Which lends some credence.”

Sophi shrugged. “Not really. Either way, evil, anti-paladin types only come from bad upbringins and, as I’m sure you’ve seen, Amber and Lyric absolutely love her to pieces but don’t spoil her.”

Tera shrugged and nodded. “They do seem to be awfully good parents. And good for you too, Mother.” She nudge Sophi conspiratorally. “I didn’t think you were interested in women.”

Sophi shrugged. “I didn’t know I was until it happened.”

“And two of them… that’s unexpected.”

“I don’t know there are any rules about who gets to love how many people and in what way,” said Sophi.

“Of course there are,” said Tera.

“Really? Says who?”

“Me I suppose. One of the benefits of being immortal.”

“I very much regret not giving you and your clan a talk about sex. It seems everyone’s a prude except the Fire Clan.”

“Not everyone,” said Tera. “I’ll try to ease it in over the next couple generations.”

“Good. Back…” Sophi hesitated “In another time and place, there’s a world where loving outside the strict confines of one man and one woman is persecuted.”

“I can see how much that bothers you. I promise there’ll be no persecution among my followers.”

“Glad to hear it.”

Tera stayed with them for a few months, until Mera arrived.

“You couldn’t have set up your holy city next to a river?” Mera asked.

“It’s not aholy city,” Sophi said.

“It’ kind of is, lover,” Lyric said. “They call you the high cleric even though we’ve told them you probably don’t’ much like it. But we’ve kept a strict separation between the theocratic powers and the governmental powers.”

“Oh.” She looked at Irah who was still a toddler. “How long has this been going on? We can’t have been here more than a few years.”

“Three and a half,” Amber said. “it’s been goingon just about as long.”

“Oh.”

“If you would go out into the city a little more instead of going to sit under that old tree all the time, you might know what’s goinig on in your city.”

“Are you scolding me?”

“Yes, lover.”

Sophi blushed.

Mera greeted Sophi’s wives with a kiss on each cheek and a gift of incense from lands across the ocean where descendants of her clan explored. For Irah she brought a horn made from a conch shell and showed her how to purse her lips so it would produce a deep, ringing note.

“Sure,” said Tera, “You brought our little sister a present. Now she’s going to expect presents every time one of us visits.”

“Did it have to be one so loud?” Sophi asked.

Mera laughed.

As Irah ran around the house, blowing her new conch shell, Mera said, without pretense, “I suppose you’ve heard the stories about Mab’s tyrant so and so on and so forth.”

“Mother seems to think that prophecy is hokum,” Tera said.

“Mother’s almost certainly right. Prophecys are always hokum,” Mera said.

Tera shrugged.

Tera left the next day, and Mera stayed with them for a few months. And on it went like that with her three children coming to visit once in a while, always bearing gifts for her wives and their little sister, bringing stories and news of the world. Though Sophi did go into the city now and then, she found it crowded and busy and not to her liking.

She preferred the quite place under the old tree and went there often.

Irah grew into a stunning young woman with prodigious control of her firestarting powers. A kindness to her soul that made Sophi proud and, sooner than Sophi would have expected, a bevy of suitors.

Sophi was inclined to chase them all off for the next several decades, but Lyric and Amber told her she was being silly, so she let them handle that aspect of things.

“Don’t forget to explain to her about sex,” Sophi said.

“Of course, lover.”

After a while, Sophi realized everyone else was getting old. She realized it with Mother Constance first. Mother Constance had already been old, but after a while, she became thin and infirm and Sophi realized it had been several years.

When Mother Constance died, they asked Sophi what to do with her body, and Sophi asked them to build a funeral pyre.

After, Sophi went to her tree on the hill outside the city and thought. Their lives were so short, and she barely noticed time at all, even thought it clicked, clicked, clicked like a metronome in her mind. Sophi knew she was aging normally now, but after living for untold timeon the Crystalline Sphere, in the burning, forming planet, and on the brand new world, she doubted she would die as Mother Constance had. Sora and Tera and Mera had grown into adulthood and stopped againg. She wondered if she would do the same. Perhaps she already had. She wondered if she’d noticed the signs of Lyric and Amber aging but ignored it.

Eventually, Irah came and sat next to her.

“Are you sad, Mother,”

“Yes,” said Sophi, and her voice broke.

“Me too. I liked Mother Constance. “But everyone dies. It’s part of the cycle of life.”

“Yes,” said Sophi. “But not for me.”

“What?”

“I should have died many times. Old age or burning in the center of the earth or being tossed from the top of Mb’s tower into the dark forest, and yet I persisted. I fear I will not die.”

“That should be a boon I’d think,” Irah said.

“Not if my friends grow old around me. Not if my wives will age before my eyes.”

“Oh,” said Irah.

They sat together until the stars came out. Eventually Irah kissed Sohpi’s forehead and bid her good night. Sophi sat there for days. She didn’t know how long. She was visited by folk from the town, the city rather. Sometimes they asked her to tell the story of how the world began. Sometimes they asked her advice. Sometimes they just sat there with her.

Eventually, Lyric and Amber came.

“You need to come home,” Amber said.

“You’re making yourself ill. You haven’t eaten in weeks,” Lyric said.

Sophi took a deep breath and felt the earth shift beneath her, the air shift above her. “I don’t need to eat. The very world sustains me.”

“You haven’t slept,” Amber said.

Sophi took another breath and felt the Crystalline Sphere shiver above her. “I don’t need to sleep. I once danced upon the Crystalline Sphere for untold eons.”

“You’re scaring us,” Lyric said.

“And what concern of it is mine, the petty worries of mortals. Your lives are fleeting, and I am Eternal!”

“All right. That’s it,” said Lyric. She sat down beside Sophi, grabbed her by the upper arm, and pulled Sophi over her lap in an efficient, practiced move. Sophi squeaked. It had been a long time since Lyric had manhandled her like that and she’d forgotten how capable the chorister was at doing so. She tried to squirm away. Amber sat on her other side and scissored Sophi’s legs with hers while Lryic grabbed hold of her wrists and pinned them. Between the two of them, they pulled her skirt aside and rolled her panties to her knees and they took turns spanking her.

Hard.

Sophi sobbed. Not because the spanking hurt, though it did, very much so, but because Mother Constance had died and soon so would they all. And though she didn’t want to feel that pain, her wives, her friends, her lovers, made her.

Later, in their home, in their bedroom, they cuddled under the blankets and Sophi explained.

“Of course we’ll grow old and die,” said Amber. “It’s how things work.”

“Not for me,” Sophi said. “I fear I’ll live forever and watch you two wither like flowers.”

“If you’re right,” said Lyric, “However much time Azoth has given us, we must spend it well.”

Sophi scoffed. “ ‘Azoth’ is fictional. Based upon Az, the First star. But he doesn’t determine how long yours lives are or how you die or any of that.”

“Well, aren’t you just the all-knowing goddess of everything,” said Amber, her tone heavily sardonic.

“Well, yes, kind of, I suppose,” said Sophi.

“That doesn’t mean you’re too old for another spanking,” said Lyric. “So buck up.”

Sophi took a deep, shuddering breath and nodded. “Okay.”

“Promise you won’t get like this again?” Lyric asked.

Sophi considered and shook her head. “I can’t promise that. But, if I do, I have you to help shake me out of it.”

In the summer of Irah’s fifteenth year, she left home. Her mothers objected of course, but she pointed out that her sibs had all gone off on their own to teach their clans when they were much younger.

“Time was different then,” Sophi said. “I don’t really know how old they were.”

“Mother, you’re underming my point. Sush.”

Sophi nodded. “yes, ma’am.”

“I’ve gotta get out there. I’ve gotta see the world. Mera has promised to take me across the ocean and Sora has promised to show me the mountain tops and Tera has promised to show me the fields and forests and caves. I want to see it. I want to see all of it.”

Sophi realized that her babies had seen more of the world than she had and she felt the sudden desire to go with Irah, to see the world. But her wives were in charge of the city council and she knew they felt rooted to their responsibilities, and Sophi wasn’t about to leave them.

Amber and Lyric continued to object, but Sophi held her peace. It took a week, but eventually Sophi’s wives agreed that their daughter needed to go out into the world. They helped her pack, they gave her many kisses, and eventually, to great fanfare, from the whole city, Irah left them.


End file.
